The export restrictions, which were said to be some of the toughest ever set in place, essentially would have prohibited U.S. companies from exporting software or hardware made in America to ZTE. That could have been enormously disruptive for the company's supply chain – in April the sanctions prompted ZTE to lower the 2015 net profit it had posted in a preliminary report – but also for the U.S. companies that ZTE relies on for 43 percent of the components and services it sells. So the restrictions would have surely had a negative impact on American companies such as Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM), Broadcom and Intel.