Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) halted shipments to a customer this month after its semiconductors were sent to China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為), potentially breaching US sanctions, a government official said.
The US slapped sanctions on Huawei in 2019, and expanded them the following year, over fears its technology could be used for Beijing’s espionage operations. The restrictions prevent TSMC from selling semiconductors to Huawei.
However, TSMC discovered on Oct. 11 that chips made for a “specific customer” had ended up with the Chinese company, a Taiwanese official with knowledge of the incident said on the condition of anonymity.
Photo: Bloomberg
TSMC “immediately activated its export control procedures,” halting shipments to the customer and “proactively” notifying US and Taiwanese authorities, the official said.
In a statement on Wednesday, TSMC said it was a "law-abiding company" and had not supplied Huawei since mid-September 2020 in compliance with export controls.
"We proactively communicated with the US Commerce Department regarding the matter in the report," TSMC said, apparently referring to media reporting of the incident.
"We are not aware of TSMC being the subject of any investigation at this time."
The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said that TSMC had informed it about the incident, but had not identified the client.
“There was already an interaction and a contractual partnership in place, so it’s an old client,” the ministry said.
The ministry added that the entity had been a client of TSMC since before the 2020 deadline for companies to comply with the export controls, and that “no shipments have been made since October 11.”
Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that Canadian research firm TechInsights had found an advanced processor made by TSMC inside Huawei's latest AI chip.
The company told Bloomberg that it hadn't "produced any chips via TSMC after the implementation of the amendments made by the US Department of Commerce" to its trade restrictions targeting Huawei in 2020.
The incident highlighted the lack of visibility into China’s domestic chip industry, said Chiang Min-yen (江旻諺), a non-resident fellow at the Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology.
“External parties lack sufficient information to understand which companies are actually under Huawei’s influence,” Chiang said.
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