Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) might must pay a fantastic of $1 billion or extra to resolve a U.S. export management investigation associated to a chip it made that was utilized in a Huawei AI processor, based on a report by Reuters.
TSMC didn’t present any additional feedback as it’s now “in [a] quiet interval,” a spokesperson for the chipmaker mentioned in an emailed assertion to TechCrunch.
It’s the newest improvement in a state of affairs that first got here to gentle in late 2024 involving TSMC, Huawei, and Xiamen Sophgo Technologies, a Chinese chip designer. Sophgo is an affiliate of Bitmain, a Bitcoin mining gear provider, and TSMC is the world’s greatest contract chipmaker.
Reports on the time indicated {that a} important amount of TSMC’s export-controlled AI chip dies went into Huawei‘s mass-produced AI accelerator, the Ascend 910B AI processor.
In nesting-doll trend, it’s alleged that TSMC’s chip is constructed into Sophgo’s chip, and Sophgo’s chip is subsequently constructed into the Ascend 901B, per the report.
This is vital not simply due to export guidelines however as a result of Huawei’s multi-chip processor is taken into account essentially the most superior in its class to be made in China. It’s estimated that a whole bunch of 1000’s of those processors had been produced with these elements.
“TSMC is a law-abiding firm and we’re dedicated to complying with all relevant guidelines and laws, together with relevant export controls,” TSMC mentioned in an announcement. “In compliance with the regulatory necessities, TSMC has not provided to Huawei since mid-September 2020. If now we have any purpose to consider there are potential points, we’ll take immediate motion to make sure compliance, together with conducting investigations and proactively speaking with related events, together with clients and regulatory authorities, as mandatory. We proactively communicated with the U.S. Commerce Department concerning the matter within the report and proceed to assist.”
A timeline of TSMC’s chip shipments to Chinese companies
October 2024
TechInsights, a tech analysis agency in Ottawa, Canada, disassembled Huawei’s 910B AI processor and found a TSMC-based chipset inside, per Reuters. The chipset resembled one made by Sophgo. Sophgo claimed that the U.S. Commerce Department’s investigation into potential connections between TSMC and Huawei doesn’t contain Sophgo or its product. Sophgo has by no means had any direct or oblique enterprise dealings with Huawei, it added.
November 2024
The U.S. Department of Commerce ordered TSMC to halt shipments of superior chips to Chinese clients, which included Sophgo.
December 2024
The U.S. Commerce Department thought of including Sophgo to the U.S. blacklist.
January 2025
The U.S. then added over twenty Chinese firms, together with Zhipu AI, which focuses on growing giant language fashions, and Sophgo.
