Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday defended Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), saying the world’s largest contract chipmaker abides by the law after a report claimed TSMC could face a large fine following an export control investigation by the US Department of Commerce (DOC).
Speaking with reporters on the sidelines of a meeting at the legislature’s Economics Committee, Kuo said as a multinational company, TSMC observes the law in every county it operates, while the ministry has not yet received any information about the possible fine.
Kuo’s comments came after a Reuters report said earlier in the day that TSMC could face a fine of US$1 billion or higher when it aims to settle with the DOC after a recent probe in which a chip made by the Taiwanese company was found in the high-end Ascend 910B artificial intelligence (AI) processor produced by Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co (華為).
Photo: Liao Chen-hui, Taipei Times
Huawei was placed on a trade restriction list by Washington in 2019 for “national security reasons.”
Citing two unnamed sources close to the matter, the report said the potential penalty of US$1 billion or more comes from export control regulations that allow for a fine of up to twice the value of any transaction that violates the sanction rules.
In the report, Lennart Heim, a researcher at US-based RAND’s Technology and Security and Policy Center, said TSMC in recent years rolled out almost 3 million chips which matched the design ordered by Chinese IC designer Sophgo Technologies Ltd (算能科技) and likely ended up with Huawei.
Heim, who tracks AI development in China, said in the report that based on the design, which is for AI applications, TSMC should not have made the chip for a company headquartered in China, especially given the risk that it could be diverted to a restricted entity like Huawei.
TSMC did not respond to questions about the Reuters report.
In October 2023, TSMC notified the US DOC that one of its chips was found by Techinsights in a Huawei product, in a possible violation of US export restrictions.
At the time, TSMC said it was committed to complying with all applicable rules and regulations, including export controls, and as such has not supplied Huawei since mid-September 2020.
Meanwhile, Reuters also reported that US President Donald Trump said at a Republican National Congressional Committee event on Tuesday that he told TSMC it would pay a tax of up to 100 percent if it didn’t build its plants in the US.
Last month, TSMC pledged to invest an additional US$100 billion in Arizona over the next few years to build three more advanced wafer fabs, two IC assembly plant and one research and development center, on top of a US$65 billion investment it has already planned for building three fabs in Arizona.
Kuo said yesterday that he has faith TSMC will fulfill its investment commitment.
The minister also responded to a lawmaker’s question about GlobalFoundries Inc exploring a potential merger with United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) to create a more resilient maker of mature chips in the US, saying he believed it would not happen.
Additional reporting by Meryl Kao
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS