Huawei sharply increased its spending on research projects at the University of California, Berkeley last year and this year, immediately before the university cut ties with the Chinese telecom manufacturer amid U.S. government sanctions, according to documents obtained by The Information.

The documents show that Berkeley accepted nearly $1.5 million through four grants during February and March of this year. That is a fifth of the more than $7 million in funding Huawei has given Berkeley since it started funding research projects in 2013. Berkeley announced in January that it would stop taking money from Huawei for new research projects, but that it would continue taking money under existing grants. Officials stopped accepting those as well in May, however, after the Commerce Department sanctioned Huawei and its subsidiaries.