Turns out that all the stories we published about Huawei asking suppliers to step up their game were partially accurate. We drew the logical conclusion that Huawei products are selling well, and suppliers need to cope with demand. That’s the partial truth, as a new report citing unnamed sources suggests that Huawei has been piling up inventory. Why? The company was preparing for the worst case scenario, and that happened.

DigiTimes reports that Huawei has been stockpiling inventory since the end of 2018.

Huawei’s Taiwan-based chip components and equipment suppliers, for example, were already demanded to kick off their shipments in the first quarter of 2019 to fulfill the orders placed in advance, the sources said — DigiTimes

The components Huawei managed to stockpile will be, reportedly, enough to cover demand at least until the end of this year. However, with no access to Android and Google services beyond support and maintenance, the outlook is interesting to say the least, even if the U.S. took a step back and eased the restrictions recently, granting Huawei a grace period for existing products.