The US on Friday said it imposed a US$500,000 penalty on New York-based GlobalFoundries Inc, the world’s third-largest contract chipmaker, for shipping chips without authorization to an affiliate of blacklisted Chinese chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯).
The US Department of Commerce in a statement said GlobalFoundries sent 74 shipments worth US$17.1 million to SJ Semiconductor Corp (盛合晶微半導體), an affiliate of SMIC, without seeking a license.
Both SMIC and SJ Semiconductor were added to the department’s trade restriction Entity List in 2020 over SMIC’s alleged ties to the Chinese military-industrial complex. SMIC has denied wrongdoing.
Photo: Reuters
Exports to firms on the list require a difficult-to-obtain license, which GlobalFoundries did not apply for, the department said.
“We want US companies to be hypervigilant when sending semiconductor materials to Chinese parties,” US Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement Matthew Axelrod said in a statement that highlighted GlobalFoundries’ voluntary disclosure of the violation and extensive cooperation with the commerce department.
GlobalFoundries in a statement said the company regrets “the inadvertent action, due to a data-entry error made prior to the entity listing,” which caused it to accidentally ship the legacy chips without a license.
“We strive to, and believe we have, a world-class trade compliance program that sets the standard for the foundry industry,” it added.
US lawmakers have grown more concerned that the commerce department, which oversees export policy, might not be aggressively enforcing its regulations as Washington seeks to stop China from receiving sensitive US technology that could bolster the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.
Influential Democratic Senator Mark Warner on Thursday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration for “apparent lax monitoring” of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) following revelations a chip produced by the Taiwanese chipmaker ended up in a product made by China’s heavily sanctioned Huawei Technologies Co (華為).
It also comes as GlobalFoundries, majority owned by Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Co, is slated to receive about US$1.5 billion from the commerce department to build a new semiconductor production facility in Malta, New York, and expand existing operations there and in Burlington, Vermont.
The grant is part of a US program to encourage chipmakers to expand production in the US.
BYPASSING CHINA TARIFFS: In the first five months of this year, Foxconn sent US$4.4bn of iPhones to the US from India, compared with US$3.7bn in the whole of last year Nearly all the iPhones exported by Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) from India went to the US between March and last month, customs data showed, far above last year’s average of 50 percent and a clear sign of Apple Inc’s efforts to bypass high US tariffs imposed on China. The numbers, being reported by Reuters for the first time, show that Apple has realigned its India exports to almost exclusively serve the US market, when previously the devices were more widely distributed to nations including the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. During March to last month, Foxconn, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) yesterday announced the launch of the TSMC-UTokyo Lab to promote advanced semiconductor research, education and talent development. The lab is TSMC’s first laboratory collaboration with a university outside Taiwan, the company said in a statement. The lab would leverage “the extensive knowledge, experience, and creativity” of both institutions, the company said. It is located in the Asano Section of UTokyo’s Hongo, Tokyo, campus and would be managed by UTokyo faculty, guided by directors from UTokyo and TSMC, the company said. TSMC began working with UTokyo in 2019, resulting in 21 research projects,
Ashton Hall’s morning routine involves dunking his head in iced Saratoga Spring Water. For the company that sells the bottled water — Hall’s brand of choice for drinking, brushing his teeth and submerging himself — that is fantastic news. “We’re so thankful to this incredible fitness influencer called Ashton Hall,” Saratoga owner Primo Brands Corp’s CEO Robbert Rietbroek said on an earnings call after Hall’s morning routine video went viral. “He really helped put our brand on the map.” Primo Brands, which was not affiliated with Hall when he made his video, is among the increasing number of companies benefiting from influencer
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) yesterday expressed a downbeat view about the prospects of humanoid robots, given high manufacturing costs and a lack of target customers. Despite rising demand and high expectations for humanoid robots, high research-and-development costs and uncertain profitability remain major concerns, Lam told reporters following the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Taoyuan. “Since it seems a bit unworthy to use such high-cost robots to do household chores, I believe robots designed for specific purposes would be more valuable and present a better business opportunity,” Lam said Instead of investing in humanoid robots, Quanta has opted to invest
RSS