Recently, the semiconductor market research institution “TechInsights” released a report indicating that Huawei’s artificial intelligence (AI) processor was found to be using chips from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). According to informed sources, TSMC had notified the United States of this matter several weeks ago.
Before releasing the report, “TechInsights” reportedly informed TSMC of this discovery, and TSMC subsequently informed the U.S. Department of Commerce, as reported by Reuters.
Citing a statement from TSMC, the Taiwanese chip manufacturing giant, on Monday (October 21), Reuters reported that the company had proactively communicated with the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding this issue. TSMC emphasized that they have not supplied any chips to Huawei since mid-September 2020.
This news came out following a surge in the stock market after TSMC recently published its financial report. According to the report by American tech media “The Information,” Huawei may be using different company names to place orders, indirectly purchasing chips from TSMC through intermediary companies.
“TechInsights” released a report stating that during the disassembly of Huawei’s “Ascend 910C” processor, it was discovered that the device used TSMC’s N7+ process technology, which is a high-performance CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) technology.
In 2019, Huawei released the Ascend 910 chip, manufactured by TSMC on a 7nm process node; after the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) added Huawei to the Entity List in 2020, TSMC ceased production for Huawei.
Since Huawei was added to the U.S. Entity List for export control in 2019, the company started stockpiling key chips. With the U.S. further tightening export restrictions on Huawei in 2020, major chip manufacturers like TSMC stopped accepting orders from Huawei to comply with U.S. trade regulations.
In October 2022, the Biden administration implemented the most extensive and strict restrictions on chip exports to China. Subsequently, Japan and the Netherlands also responded to the U.S. actions by imposing restrictions on the export of advanced chip manufacturing equipment, further hindering the Chinese Communist Party’s access to high-end chip technology.
Huawei acknowledges that the U.S. ban has been a disaster for the company. This is not the first time that controlled chips have been discovered during the disassembly of Huawei devices.
In January of this year, “TechInsights” dismantled Huawei’s Qingyun L540 laptop and found that its 5-nanometer chip actually originated from chips produced by TSMC in 2020.
To curb the technological ambitions of the Chinese Communist Party, the U.S. is actively working on multilateral controls to prevent China from acquiring chips and related equipment through different channels.
On October 15, the U.S. House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, led by Republican Chair John Moolenaar and Democratic Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi, wrote to Japanese Ambassador to the U.S. Shigeyuki Yamada, urging Japan to quickly address the issue of semiconductor manufacturing equipment flowing to China.