HUAWEI Technologies, the Chinese telecom giant that has been barred from buying U.S. technology, has allocated a special cash award worth 2 billion yuan (US$285.4 million) to distribute among employees who have contributed to its contingency plan to help minimize the impact of the ban, according to sources familiar with the matter.

While those who will benefit have not been identified, it is believed people in research and development roles, especially at Huawei’s chip arm HiSilicon that have come up with alternatives to U.S. components, and those developing the company’s in-house operating systems, will most likely share in the award, according to employees.

Besides the 2 billion yuan shared bonus, each Huawei employee will receive double their salary this month in appreciation of efforts to help the company get through the hard times, the sources said.

Huawei, which employs 190,000 people and is the world’s largest telecommunications equipment vendor, will deposit the double salary into employee bank accounts Friday.

On Sunday Shenzhen-based Huawei marked 180 days since it was put on a U.S. trade blacklist due to U.S. national security concerns, which prompted company wide efforts to stabilize operations that were cut off from certain U.S. technologies, including Google’s Android OS.

Huawei last month reported revenue of 610.8 billion yuan for the nine months ended Sept. 30, saying it had secured more than 60 commercial 5G network supply contracts. Founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei earlier indicated the company was on track to surpass US$100 billion in sales this year, around the same level as last year, despite the impact of the ban.

(SD-Agencies)