Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract maker of advanced chips, yesterday said it is a law-abiding company, and is committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations including export controls.
The Hsinchu-based chip giant issued the statement after US news Web site The Information ran a story saying that the US Department of Commerce has launched a probe into TSMC over whether it breached export rules by making smartphone or artificial intelligence (AI) chips for China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為).
“We maintain a robust and comprehensive export system for monitoring and ensuring compliance,” the statement said.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
“If we have any reason to believe there are potential issues, we will take prompt action to ensure compliance, including conducting investigations and proactively communicating with relevant parties including customers and regulatory authorities as necessary,” it added.
US regulators had contacted TSMC to enquire over any production for Huawei, The Information said.
Huawei was blacklisted by the US in 2020 over national security concerns, barring it from securing chips made using US equipment. The restrictions also prevent Huawei from making its own chips using US technology without approval from the commerce department.
Huawei has said that all its advanced chips are sourced from Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯國際), China’s biggest chipmaker.
The Chinese technology brand last year launched a smartphone with an advanced 7-nanometer chip made by SMIC, with the processor lauded by many in the industry as a major breakthrough for Chinese firms.
Beyond Huawei, the US had over the past two years introduced curbs banning Chinese companies from accessing the most advanced AI chips and technology. Firms such as Nvidia Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc, which make the most cutting-edge AI chips, cannot sell them to the Chinese market.
TSMC, the sole chip supplier of Apple Inc’s iPhone series, is also a key supplier of advanced chips used in AI applications.
TSMC chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told an earnings conference call on Thursday that AI demand is real and almost all major AI players are the company’s customers.
That explained why TSMC posted a record net income of NT$325.26 billion (US$10.14 billion) for the third quarter and forecast a sequential 13 percent increase in revenue for the fourth quarter.
Wei described the AI boom as just the beginning of a long-term trend that would enable TSMC to post healthy business growth over the next five years.
TSMC shares yesterday rose 4.83 percent to close at a new high of NT$1,085, Taiwan Stock Exchange’s data showed.
Elon Musk’s lieutenants have reached out to chip industry suppliers, including Applied Materials Inc, Tokyo Electron Ltd and Lam Research Corp, for his envisioned Terafab, early steps in an audacious and likely arduous attempt to break into the production of cutting-edge chips. Staff working for the joint venture between Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) have sought price quotes and delivery times for an array of chipmaking gear, people familiar with the matter said. In past weeks, they’ve contacted makers of photomasks, substrates, etchers, depositors, cleaning devices, testers and other tools, according to the people, who asked not to
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
RSS