TSMC tells US its chip was found in Huawei product despite sanctions

Huawei has had a rocky relationship with the US government for the past five years. The company was placed on a US trade restriction in 2019 for national security reasons. Since 2020, the US Commerce Department has placed various bans on the Chinese brand. The company was barred from buying chips manufactured using American equipment. Due to this, TSMC was recently questioned by the US whether it was involved in making chips for Huawei, which TSMC denied. Now, TSMC has found that Huawei is using its chip despite US sanctions.

One of TSMC’s chips was found in a Huawei product despite US sanctions

A Canadian research firm called TechInsights has found a chip made by Taiwan’s TSMC in the brand’s artificial intelligence accelerators. A firm took apart Huawei’s Ascend 910B chip and found that one of the chips inside it is made by TSMC beside US sanctions. The report has revealed that Huawei is violating export restrictions by the US. The teardown of the Ascend 910B chip had one of TSMC chips within a multi-chip system.

TSMC has now notified the US trade commision that one of its chips had been found in the Huawei chip. Notably, the research firm informed TSMC of the matter before publishing its findings from the teardown in a report. This prompted TSMC to notify the US Commerce Department about the matter earlier this month. One of the FT’s sources said that TSMC “had spoken both to the customer involved and to the commerce department” after receiving the suspicious order.

TSMC earlier denied a working relationship with Huawei in 2020

Notably, TSMC had already denied having a working relationship with Huawei since mid-September 2020. The chip maker said that it hasn’t made any chips for the Chinese brand due to the restrictions. Huawei earlier denied that it had ever “launched the 910B chip”. This is not the first time Huawei has been caught using technology from American companies in its products. Earlier in May, the Chinese brand was found to fund secret research in the US at universities like Harvard.