Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has suspended production of advanced silicon for Chinese start-up Biren Intelligent Technology Co (壁仞科技) to ensure compliance with US regulations, a person familiar with the matter said.
The decision is connected with information in the public domain that Biren’s products outperform Nvidia Corp’s A100 chips, which are banned for the Chinese market, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing a sensitive matter.
While TSMC has not reached a conclusion on whether Biren’s products meet the US threshold for restrictions, the chipmaker has decided to stop supplies to the Chinese start-up for now, the person said.
Photo: Lam Yik Fei, Bloomberg
Biren, one of China’s most promising semiconductor designers, earlier concluded its artificial intelligence (AI) chips produced by TSMC are not covered by the latest US export restrictions because the specs of its products do not meet the criteria for curbs, Bloomberg reported on Friday.
A representative for TSMC declined to comment further. No one at Shanghai-based Biren was immediately available to respond to requests for comment outside of regular business hours.
Biren is considered a domestic contender to compete with graphics chips from Nvidia, which has said it can no longer sell its most advanced AI products into China. The US measures were designed to limit China’s development of technology that might be used to aid its military, and appeared to rule out access to advanced fabrication.
The US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), which plays a key role in designing and enforcing export controls, announced the semiconductor restrictions on Oct. 7.
“While BIS cannot comment on company-specific actions, we expect all companies to comply with export controls,” a commerce department spokesperson said in a response to an earlier query on TSMC’s business relationship with Biren. “Since the release of the rule on Oct. 7, BIS has been undertaking a vigorous outreach effort to educate those impacted by it to aid compliance efforts.”
TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, complies with all relevant regulations and “will continue to serve all customers around the world,” chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said in response to a question about China during its earnings call on Oct. 13.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have declared they survived recall votes to remove them from office today, although official results are still pending as the vote counting continues. Although final tallies from the Central Election Commission (CEC) are still pending, preliminary results indicate that the recall campaigns against all seven KMT lawmakers have fallen short. As of 6:10 pm, Taichung Legislators Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) and Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔), Hsinchu County Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘), Nantou County Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) and New Taipei City Legislator Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) had all announced they
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday visited Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), as the chipmaker prepares for volume production of Nvidia’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chips. It was Huang’s third trip to Taiwan this year, indicating that Nvidia’s supply chain is deeply connected to Taiwan. Its partners also include packager Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密) and server makers Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達). “My main purpose is to visit TSMC,” Huang said yesterday. “As you know, we have next-generation architecture called Rubin. Rubin is very advanced. We have now taped out six brand new
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant
RSS