Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company suspended shipments to China-based chip designer Sophgo after a chip it made was found on a Huawei AI processor, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Sophgo had ordered chips from TSMC that matched the one found on Huawei’s Ascend 910B, the people said. Huawei is restricted from buying the technology to protect U.S. national security. Reuters could not determine how the chip ended up on the Huawei product.

Tech research firm TechInsights discovered the TSMC chip on Huawei’s Ascend 910B when it took apart the multi-chip processor, a different source told Reuters on Tuesday. Alerted to the finding, about two weeks ago TSMC notified the U.S., the source said.

  • CosmoNova@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    B-b-but China said all their chips are self made and that sanctions only accelerate their technological progress. You mean they got caught lying through their teeth again?

    • dontgooglefinderscult@lemmings.world
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      12 hours ago

      Huawei stated no such thing. Huawei is also not “China” no matter how much US corporations want to make you believe it is so you can continue to buy NSA backed doored US designed products.

      • jaxxed@lemmy.world
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        7 hours ago

        The CCP definitely have more say in Chinese tech than the US Government has over US tech. In China, the government controls industry, in the US industry controls government. That said, both are likely backdoored.

        • dontgooglefinderscult@lemmings.world
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          7 hours ago

          You posted three articles of of China using the US’s existing backdoors. This is why Intel was banned in China.

          To your loaded question, because we do audits on hardware (no backdoor) and software (sometimes a backdoor, don’t use wechat).

          We know the CCP isn’t going to backdoor hardware, and it’s really simple why not. Backdoors go both ways. Only the most ridiculously stupidly arrogant country would put in a backdoor assuming they’re the only ones that will ever be able to use it.

  • catloaf@lemm.ee
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    1 day ago

    How do US restrictions factor in here? TSMC is a Taiwanese company with only one operational plant in the US, the majority are in Taiwan, China, and Japan.

    • vinnymac@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      Your friend knows a secret recipe for the best chocolate chip cookies. Your mother owns the best ovens in town.

      Your friend cuts a deal with your mother to use her oven exclusively. Your mother agrees knowing she’ll get to charge your friend every time they use the ovens.

      This is like that. The main value is in the design (recipe). Modern foundry’s are also complex and difficult to operate affordably, but they exist all over the planet. It’s ultimately the partnerships that makes it all possible.

    • plz1@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      The US is the primary military force protecting Taiwan, by treaty. That’s likely why.

    • misk@sopuli.xyz
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      1 day ago

      They could ignore sanctions but that would mean they’d be sanctioned as well. Pretty much every manufacturer and financial institution has to obey laws in multiple jurisdictions if they want to operate within those markets.

      • RobotToaster@mander.xyz
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        1 day ago

        Would the USA actually sanction TSMC though? Wouldn’t that be a massive blow to companies like apple?

        • jaxxed@lemmy.world
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          8 hours ago

          You are forgetting that Taiwan has an interest in supporting the U.S. led sanctions.

        • Entropywins@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          They need asml lithography equipment without which they are a nothing burger and to get that you need to play nice with US and EU.

          • misk@sopuli.xyz
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            1 day ago

            Lithography but also clients like Apple, Intel, AMD and so on. Without them they’re also toast. World today is so interconnected that at large scale it’s really hard not to be compliant with sanctions.

      • jaxxed@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        US legal mechanisms for internationally enforcing US law are not like domestic enforcement mechanisms. The scenarios that the pro-China folks here are talking about involve a (completely unrealistic) switch in Taiwanese allegiance, that would make US economic enforcement less relevant, and US military enforcement a serious international risk.

        There are just a lot of tankies commenting, and you have to be able to interpret their logic.

        • humanspiral@lemmy.ca
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          5 hours ago

          The US claim on TSMC, are based on it using ASML (Dutch) equipment which has patent licenses from US. I was just answering the puzzling US colonial power roots. There may come a point of challenging the colonial patent power, while still attempting to pay for the patent, or China’s “delete America” program may get more allies or rebellion from the colonies.

          China/BRICS is a much bigger market than US, and economics means figuring out a way to earn from all sides is motivated. US promises to isolate itself even more under Trump, and there is a limit to how much it will be respected.

    • Khanzarate@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Countries willing to pass on a US patent to China stop getting the chips (or, in this case, chip-making jobs, realistically, but that still hurts)

      Also Taiwan doesn’t wanna help China and even if a US sanction was just an excuse to hurt China and get away with it they’d probably do it.

      Edit: in this case, this chip is “foreign-produced items […] that are the direct product of U.S. technology or software”, according to the article. I feel it was implied but clarity is always good. US technology, used with permission in a Taiwanese good, and that permission could be retracted.

  • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    When I read “processor” in this context, I’m usually thinking of a discrete component. Wat?

    I could understand being surprised to find a certain processor in a chip, but how y’all fitting chips in processors? I’m guessing that this is just another tech “journalism” failure.

      • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        You don’t seem to understand what I’m saying.

        I’d be surprised to find a Cortex M0 in an SoC that billed itself as having a Cortex M33, for example.

        A System on a Chip can often have a CPU, GPU, and other subprocessors all on one die, but multiple chips on a processor is backwards.

        • catloaf@lemm.ee
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          1 day ago

          So… you’re saying calling a productized die a “chip” is inappropriate? I think you’d be in the minority.