Two Taiwanese companies identified in a Bloomberg report as doing business with Huawei Technologies Co (華為)-linked chipmakers in China yesterday said that their dealings in the country did not contravene US sanctions and were in line with national security laws.
Citing the Semiconductor Industry Association, Bloomberg on Tuesday reported that Huawei had set up “its own shadow network of chipmakers” with the support of the Chinese government in a bid to evade US sanctions.
Bloomberg’s report suggested that Huawei has been relying on three little-known firms in Shenzhen — Pengxinwei IC Manufacturing Co (鵬芯微), Pensun Technology Co (鵬新旭) and SwaySure Technology Co (昇維旭) — to produce chips based on its designs, with the involvement of four Taiwanese firms — chip material reseller Topco Scientific Co (崇越), cleanroom equipment supplier L&K Engineering Co (亞翔), construction specialist United Integrated Services Co (漢唐) and chemical supply system provider Cica-Huntek Chemical Technology Taiwan Co (矽科宏晟).
Photo: Reuters
Bloomberg reported that subsidiaries of the four Taiwanese companies had engaged in “unusual” dealings with the three firms, in a manner that “may be helping Huawei develop semiconductors to effectively break an American blockade.”
In a statement yesterday, L&K Engineering said that its Suzhou-based subsidiary was engaged in interior architecture work and electric and line pipe layout, adding that its business in China did not involve technologies and semiconductor equipment sales restricted by Washington.
Cica-Huntek Chemical Technology said that although it has received orders from Pengxinwei and Pensun since June last year to provide chemical supply system solutions for the two Chinese firms’ plants, it has never provided them with IC equipment.
The company said that as it has conducted business legally and followed national policy, it would continue to pursue its contracts with the two Chinese clients.
The statements from Cica-Huntek Chemical Technology and L&K Engineering came a day after Topco Scientific and United Integrated Services denied that their businesses in China had broken any laws by operating in the country.
Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) on Tuesday told reporters that, to her knowledge, the four Taiwanese companies were not supplying any key technologies or equipment to Huawei, as local companies are legally barred from providing key technologies to China while investing in the Chinese market.
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
INDUSTRY LEADER: TSMC aims to continue outperforming the industry’s growth and makes 2025 another strong growth year, chairman and CEO C.C. Wei says Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday said it aims to grow revenue by about 25 percent this year, driven by robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. That means TSMC would continue to outpace the foundry industry’s 10 percent annual growth this year based on the chipmaker’s estimate. The chipmaker expects revenue from AI-related chips to double this year, extending a three-fold increase last year. The growth would quicken over the next five years at a compound annual growth rate of 45 percent, fueled by strong demand for the high-performance computing
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
RSS