Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it had notified the US government that one of its chips was reportedly found in a Huawei Technologies Co (華為) product, in a possible breach of US export restrictions.
International media reports said that Canada-based research firm TechInsights recently discovered an Ascend 910B chip manufactured by TSMC while taking apart Huawei’s highest-end artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators. The Ascend 910B chip is considered the Chinese company’s most advanced AI chip.
TechInsights informed TSMC of its findings before publishing them in a report — which has yet to be released — while TSMC notified the US Department of Commerce, Reuters reported.
Photo: Bloomberg
The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for national security reasons, meaning the Shenzhen-based company is barred from doing business with TSMC and its contract chipmaking peers without a US government license.
The Taiwanese chipmaker has said it stopped all shipments to Huawei after Sept. 15, 2020, which the company reiterated when asked about the TechInsights report.
“TSMC is a law-abiding company, and we are committed to complying with all applicable rules and regulations, including applicable export controls. In compliance with the regulatory requirements, TSMC has not supplied to Huawei since mid-September 2020,” the company said in a statement yesterday. “We proactively communicated with the US Commerce Department regarding the matter in the report. We are not aware of TSMC being the subject of any investigation at this time.”
Huawei said in a statement it has not “produced any chips via TSMC after the implementation of the amendments made by the US Department of Commerce to its FDPR that target Huawei in 2020,” referring to the foreign direct product rule — a US trade restriction.
“Huawei has never launched the 910B chip,” the company said.
A commerce department spokesperson said that the agency’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), which is responsible for semiconductor trade restrictions, is “aware of reporting alleging potential violations of US export controls.”
“We cannot comment on whether any investigation is ongoing,” the spokesperson said. “BIS is committed to ensuring compliance with the robust controls we have put in place related to China’s acquisition of advanced semiconductors.”
BIS officials met with TSMC executives in the middle of this month about issues relating to the chipmaker’s supply chain, including whether third-party distributors might provide China the ability to access restricted technology, said one of the people, who described the meeting as collaborative.
The meeting did not touch on the TechInsights report, the person said.
It is not clear whether Huawei had designed or placed orders for the 910B chip prior to its blacklisting. The processor was first spotted in server products as early as 2022, Washington-based think tank the Center for Security and Emerging Technology said.
It started gaining exposure in Chinese news outlets last year, although Huawei has not officially hosted a launch event.
IFlytek Co (科大訊飛) unveiled a new server product with the AI accelerator in August last year, and Baidu Inc (百度) ordered more than 1,000 910B units last year, Taipei-based research firm TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
RSS