For years, the U.S. government has spun a web of controls designed to keep Chinese companies from buying or manufacturing cutting-edge computer chips.
But weeks ago, TSMC, the maker of the world’s most advanced chips, learned that some of its chips were ending up in equipment made by Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, which is under U.S. sanctions, according to two Taiwanese government officials who were not authorized to speak publicly.
TSMC, which produces chips for technology giants such as Apple and Nvidia, said it wouldthese restrictionsSince taking effect, the company has not supplied chips to Huawei. But TSMC continues to supply other major Chinese companies, and U.S. officials are increasingly concerned that other companies may supply products to Huawei.
The U.S. government has been trying to prevent Chinese companies from buying advanced chips due to concerns they could be used for military purposes. The U.S. government blocks Huawei and other Chinese companies from buying products made with U.S. technology and forces Japan and the Netherlands toalliesof companies stopped selling products to Chinese companies.
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But despite U.S. restrictions, chips used for artificial intelligence are still actively traded in the Chinese market, and Chinese companies continue to develop technology that U.S. authorities are concerned about. They are used in artificial intelligence systems anddrive these systemsofAdvanced microchipGreat progress has been made in this regard.
The development, and the presence of TSMC-made chips in Huawei equipment, raises questions about how successful U.S. controls are in preventing advanced technology from entering China, and how companies such as TSMC conduct customer verification.
TSMC’s chips appear in Huawei’s Ascend 910B processor, which contains several types of computer chips used to train artificial intelligence models, according to an industry analyst and a former U.S. government official familiar with the matter. The two spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
It’s unclear how TSMC chips found their way into Huawei processors, or how many processors contain TSMC chips.
Chinese companies have gone to great lengths to circumvent U.S. restrictions. Many companies, including Huawei, rushed to buy American technology before the United States legally shut down sales. Some companies are hoarding thousands of chips, while others are booming from businesspurchasing from the underground smuggling market.
TSMC once produced chips for Huawei’s earlier generation processors. A Huawei spokesman said the company has not had TSMC produce any chips for it since the U.S. changed its rules in 2020. “We did have a lot of stockpiles at the time,” she said.
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But the two people familiar with the matter said that a Chinese company recently ordered hundreds of thousands of chips from TSMC with the same design as those in Huawei products.
One of them said that the Chinese company is Xiamen Shunneng Technology Co., Ltd. and the order was signed this year.
Computing Technology was founded and partially owned by Bitmain CEO Ketuan Zhan. Bitmain is a Chinese company that produces processors for computers and artificial intelligence systems used to mine cryptocurrency and is one of TSMC’s most important Chinese customers, said Jiang Min, an overseas researcher at the Center for Technology, Democracy and Society, a government-funded Taipei think tank. Proverb says.
Shuneng Technology said in a statement that the company has never had any direct or indirect business relationship with Huawei, and its business has never violated any U.S. export control laws.
The Information websiteFirst to reportThe US government is investigating whether TSMC produces chips for Huawei.And TSMC has already started investigatingsome time ofStop shipping to Suaneng Technology.
TSMC makes chips that power everything from fighter jets to chatbots. Demand for these chips has surged as companies around the world race to develop advanced artificial intelligence systems and competition between China and the United States intensifies.
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U.S. government officials responsible for enforcing export controls face a difficult task: setting the rules, said Jacob Feldgois, an analyst at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technologies and author of a report on Huawei’s Ascend 910 chip performance. , restricting private companies’ business activities outside the United States.
TSMC said it has a robust export system to monitor and ensure compliance. “If we have any reason to believe there is a potential issue, we will act quickly to ensure compliance, including conducting investigations and proactively communicating with relevant parties, which is what we did in this case,” the company said.
U.S. rules allow TSMC to sell certain types of chips to Chinese companies that are exempt from sanctions. “These regulations do not completely prevent entities such as TSMC from producing advanced chips for Chinese customers,” said think tank researcher Jiang Minyan.
TSMC and Taiwanese government officials said the company has communicated with the U.S. Commerce Department.
One of the Taiwanese officials said: “TSMC discovered about two weeks ago that chips that were delivered to specific customers in the past ended up in the hands of Huawei for unknown reasons.”
TSMC immediately stopped shipments to the company and notified the U.S. and Taiwanese governments, the official said.
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The U.S. Commerce Department declined to comment. A representative from Taiwan’s Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau said the bureau was studying the reports but had not yet launched a formal investigation.