British chipmaker ARM Holdings PLC ordered its staff to suspend business with Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and its subsidiaries, in compliance with a U.S. ban on the Chinese tech giant, BBC News reported, citing internal documents.

ARM believes it is affected by the ban since its designs contain "U.S.-origin technology." It told staff not to engage in discussions with Huawei and to decline opportunities to talks about the business at industry events.

The ban also appears to apply to ARM China, which is ARM's joint venture with a Chinese investment consortium.

An analyst told BBC News that ARM's move would be a significant blow to Huawei if it is long term, since it would affect the company's ability to develop its own chips. Huawei gets some of its chips from its unit HiSilicon, which uses ARM's technology through a licensing deal.

In addition, Huawei recently announced plans to build a research center close to ARM's Cambridge headquarters, according to the report.

The U.S. government has blacklisted Huawei due to perceived threats to U.S. national security or foreign policy interest. It recently scaled back the restrictions by allowing U.S. companies to continue doing business with Huawei for the next three months.

SoftBank Group Corp. owns ARM.