Samsung and Huawei are considering a deal under which the former would fabricate semiconductors for the Chinese telecom giant, in exchange for a substantial amount of Huawei’s smartphone market share, Asia Times reported on Sunday.

Meanwhile, rumours of layoffs of half of Huawei’s workforce are spreading on Chinese social media.

The news came after the United States issued its plan to bar Huawei from developing semiconductors using American technology and software. As the ban will forbid Huawei from obtaining chips from its key supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the new deal with Samsung offers a way out.

Samsung is the second-largest fabricator of memory and logic chips, also the only company other than TSMC that can produce the most advanced 7-nanometer chips. The South Korean giant has already set up a small production line for using Japanese and European equipment, said electronics industry magazine EE Times.

Huawei has also reportedly placed additional orders at China’s flagship fabricator Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), which can only produce 14nm chips for now and promises to have the 7nm production running by the end of this year.

But SMIC would need to apply for a license to supply chips to Huawei because of its use of American equipment and technology. Washington has said that the presumption would be to deny such requests.

Earlier on Sunday, a Weibo account of a verified former Huawei staffer posted a group chat screenshot. “I heard from a senior staff that the company will announce restructuring plan in mid-July… and may cut down staff from 190,000 to 100,000,” a group member wrote.

Huawei Italian unit CEO Thomas Miao confirmed in last July that they have laid off 1,000 staff at its U.S. based subsidiary.

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