A few days ago we learned that Huawei had access to advanced chips from TSMC. On paper, this news should not be relevant, but the fact is that the presence of a product from the Taiwanese giant in a Chinese device means that they have managed to circumvent US sanctions. Thus, TSMC itself confirmed that it had not shipped to Huawei since 2020. And, for this reason, it has decided to take a radical decision to cut the situation at the root.
As indicated by the portal Reuters in a recent publication, TSMC suspended shipments to the company Sophgo following the incident with Huawei’s Ascend 910B processor. An investigation revealed that the TSMC chip matched the one used by the Chinese company, a situation made complex by US laws seeking to protect national security. And, after TSMC confirmed that it had not supplied chips to Huawei since September 2020, the company decided to cut ties to prevent further problems.
Sophgo is allied with a cryptocurrency company
4 years ago, the United States expanded its ability to block shipments of foreign-manufactured products to Huawei through a very specific measure: if these were related to US technology or software. However, Sophgo has managed to circumvent the situation. In addition, this company is affiliated with Bitmain, a Chinese provider of cryptocurrency mining equipment with which it shares founders and resources.
Once the Huawei case broke out, Taiwanese authorities were informed of the incident and are still conducting an ongoing investigation to detect other possible consequences. Unfortunately for Bitmain, this is not the first time it has faced problems in Taiwan. In 2021, its operations in the Asian region were investigated for illegally hiring Taiwanese engineers. Nevertheless, both this company and Sophgo have expressed their desire to compete in the AI chip market and, therefore, it seems that we have not seen the last episode of this particular novel.
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