TSMC has notified the United States that its chips were found in Huawei products. This became known after the research company TechInsight disassembled one of the Chinese company's products, Reuters reports.
TechInsight has received the Ascend 910B AI processor, which is considered Huawei's most advanced AI chip. It uses a multi-chip system. One of the Taiwanese company's chips was part of this system. TechInsight spoke to TSMC about its findings before publishing the full report.
The Taiwanese chipmaker said in a statement on October 22, 2024, that it had already contacted the US Department of Commerce about the discovery. The company also said it has not supplied any chips to Huawei since mid-September 2020. At the same time, the Chinese company also claims that it has not ordered any chips from TSMC since the new US restrictions came into effect in 2020.
TSMC manufactured the previous version of the processor, the Ascend 910, which was released in 2019, but it is not yet known how the new chips got to the Chinese company. The US has launched an investigation into both companies, and the Department of Commerce said it was "aware of reports of alleged violations of US export controls" but did not comment further.