According to Odaily, Sophgo, an artificial intelligence company associated with Bitmain, said in a written statement that it has never had any direct or indirect business dealings with Huawei. However, the company did not refute reports that TSMC cut off its chip supply. Additionally, Sophgo mentioned that it provided TSMC with a detailed investigation report to demonstrate that the company is not involved in the Huawei investigation.
Recently, the US Department of Commerce launched an investigation earlier this month into whether TSMC supplied chips to Huawei. Following this, TSMC stopped supplying chips to Sophgo. Two informed sources confirmed that TSMC had indeed cut off chip supplies to the related company. Since 2020, Huawei has been prohibited from purchasing chips made using American technology, including those produced by TSMC. TSMC has acknowledged that it uses American technology in its chip manufacturing process and has committed to complying with American laws.
Previous reports indicated that semiconductor research firm TechInsights claimed to have discovered that Huawei’s latest high-end AI accelerator chip, the Ascend 910B, could have been manufactured by TSMC. This finding suggests that TSMC could have potentially violated U.S. export controls.
