Delhi Delhi. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co suspended shipments to China-based chip designer Sofgo after a chip made by it was found on Huawei AI processors, according to two people familiar with the matter. Sofgo ordered the chip from TSMC, the people said. Which matched the chip found on Huawei's Ascend 910B. Huawei is banned from purchasing technology to protect US national security. Reuters could not determine how the chip arrived on a Huawei product.
Sofgo, which is affiliated with cryptocurrency mining equipment company Bitmain, did not respond to requests for comment. TSMC declined to comment. Huawei did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The US Commerce Department said it was aware of reports of possible violations of US export controls, but could not comment on whether an investigation was underway.
Tech research firm TechInsights discovered the TSMC chip on Huawei's Ascend 910B when it took apart the multi-chip processor, a separate source told Reuters on Tuesday. Alerted to the discovery, TSMC informed the US about two weeks ago, the source said. Around the same time, TSMC also halted shipments to a client, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing a Taiwanese official who said the suspension occurred after the company learned that a chip supplied to the client ended up in a Huawei product. TSMC alerted Taiwanese and US authorities and launched a detailed investigation, the official said. But the official did not reveal the name of the client, which the latest sources identified as Sofgo. The information technology news outlet had also reported the name earlier on Saturday
TSMC, the world's largest contract chip maker, said earlier this week that it has not supplied to Huawei since mid-September 2020, and that it has “actively communicated” with the Commerce Department about the matter. “We are not aware of TSMC being the subject of any investigation at this time,” the company's statement said. Shenzhen-based Huawei said in a statement on Tuesday that it no longer made any chips through TSMC after the US imposed new export rules on the company in 2020.
In 2020, the US expanded its authority to block shipments to Huawei of foreign-made goods that are direct products of American technology or software, including TSMC's chips. Previously, TSMC had supplied chips for Huawei's Ascend series, sources told Reuters earlier this year. Its Ascend 910B, to be released in 2022, is seen as the most advanced AI chip available from a Chinese company.
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