According to the Financial Times, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has stopped producing advanced AI chips for Chinese companies. A Taiwanese semiconductor chip maker has reportedly informed its Chinese customers that it will stop producing AI chips for them starting Monday this week, especially models below 7 nanometers. If a Chinese company orders a product that falls into that category, it will have to go through an approval process that likely involves the U.S. government.
The manufacturer’s new policy may be a direct result of the revelation that Huawei was unknowingly using its chips in AI accelerators. A Canadian research firm called TechInsights notified the company that it had discovered the presence of TSMC-made products in Huawei’s hardware. This is a violation of trade sanctions imposed on Huawei by the US Department of Commerce in 2020, which prevented Huawei from obtaining chips made by foreign companies. It recently revoked licenses that allowed Intel and Qualcomm to make chips for its devices.
TSMC has reported TechInsights’ findings to the US Department of Commerce, which is currently investigating how this issue occurred. The company denies any cooperation with Huawei and has also stopped selling chips to customers it believes were illegally transferring chips to Chinese brands. According to the newspaper’s sources, TSMC decided to completely halt production of AI chips for Chinese customers because it wants to show the U.S. government that it is “not acting against U.S. interests.” It is said that The company’s new policy could have a major impact on how Chinese customers approach AI. For example, Baidu had plans to build hardware for its AI business powered by a series of chips made by TSMC.
