TSMC discovers its chips made their way to Huawei products

The Taiwanese chipset company TSMC found that some of its chips made their way to Huawei, according to an insider that spoke with Bloomberg. The report revealed a third-party client provided chipsets for the sanctioned Chinese company, which equipped its AI servers with said processors.

The information comes days after a report revealed the Bureau of Industry and Security at the US Commerce Department started investigating alleging potential violations of US export controls

TSMC issued a statement, saying it is a “law-abiding company” that is committed to complying with all rules and regulations, including applicable export controls. In a separate statement, Huawei said it hadn"t produced any TSMC chips since the company was blacklisted by the US Department of Commerce in 2020.

The client was not named in the report because of the “sensitive” nature of the issue. It is also unclear whether it acted on Huawei"s behalf or where it is based; the report simply confirmed previous information that TSMC chips do power AI servers that Huawei is using to develop its artificial intelligence models.

Huawei is currently using 7nm chips made by SMIC, although capabilities to make such SoC at scale are also questioned by US officials. The Chinese maker did manage to stockpile some chipsets that TSMC made in 2019, the Kirin 910, and we"ve seen modifications of it appear in products for years later.