The plot thickens regarding the case of Huawei and TSMC's alleged partnership, as a Canadian research firm known as TechInsights has found the link between the two companies in one of the Chinese tech company's AI accelerators. Earlier this week, it was reported that the US Department of Commerce has launched an investigation behind TSMC's involvement with Huawei.
The renowned Taiwanese chip manufacturing company denied that they are producing chips for Huawei or has an active partnership deal with the Chinese company in its previous statement to the agencies.
New Study Finds TSMC's Chip Used in Huawei's AI
A report from Bloomberg revealed that they have received new information from anonymous sources who are familiar with the investigation who claimed that TechInsight's probe found TSMC's technology present on Huawei's processor. This follows up on the latest study from TechInsight which discovered that a TSMC-made chip was found on one of Huawei's AI accelerators.
The chip in question is TSMC's Ascend 910B which was discovered in Huawei's technology, and TSMC was later notified of these findings before TechInsights published their report.
It has not yet revealed what steps the US Commerce will take after this recent information, but this latest information also revealed that China is still struggling to develop its own chipsets, particularly the advanced ones to power its different devices, case in point, Huawei's.
TSMC Denies Huawei Involvement
The latest discovery behind TSMC puts the company in hot waters as Huawei is known for facing US sanctions on its access to these kinds of technologies since 2020, and it requires the Chinese company to get licenses from the American government to use it.
However, a report from The Financial Times revealed that TSMC previously informed the US Commerce Department of these findings, claiming that a customer placed orders that are akin to Huawei's Ascend 910B. It was also noted in the report that TSMC has already contacted the customer and Commerce regarding the issue.
That being said, TSMC still denies its involvement with Huawei, claiming that their relationship ended last mid-September 2020, and it also shared this information with Commerce.
US Sanctions Against Huawei
The US sanctions against Huawei have significantly overturned the company's previous dominance in the smartphone market, particularly as it was close to Apple and Samsung's numbers before when it was still using Qualcomm chips. Despite the years-long sanctions against Huawei, the company found ways to survive and thrive in the market without the help from American technology.
Earlier this year, the United States also found that China's SMIC produced 7-nanometer chips for Huawei which were equipped with the Mate 60 Pro series, and this led to significant actions by the Commerce Department. Under the Biden administration, the US imposed an import restriction for SMIC, prohibiting them from supplying Huawei with the chips, and already stopped since then.
The recent probe into TSMC's chip development which was suspected of helping Huawei develop its new AI chips and led to the company's thriving performance in China is now the matter at hand for the US Commerce. Now, the latest reports claim that TSMC's technology was found in one of Huawei's AI processors, but the Taiwan company still maintains that it no longer has any involvement with the Chinese tech firm since the sanctions.
