"US Plans Sanctions on Chinese Companies Ordering TSMC Chips Instead of Huawei"

There are reports that the U.S. Biden administration has decided to sanction a Chinese company suspected of ordering Taiwan's TSMC chips found in Chinese Huawei's artificial intelligence (AI) processors on its behalf.

According to major foreign media on the 20th (local time), the U.S. government plans to include Chinese company Sophgo, which is seen as cooperating with Huawei, on the Entity List for sanctions. Sophgo, a semiconductor design company, is an affiliate of Bitmain, a supplier of Bitcoin mining equipment.

Previously, it was revealed that the TSMC chips found in Huawei's Ascend 910B multi-chip system were ordered by Sophgo, causing controversy.

Companies listed on the U.S. Department of Commerce's sanctions list must obtain permission from the U.S. government to trade advanced products or technologies, and such permissions are rarely granted.

Huawei was placed on the Entity List in 2019. Accordingly, since 2020, the U.S. government has prohibited both U.S. and foreign companies from exporting chips to Huawei without special permission.

Sophgo did not respond immediately to this. When the issue arose last October, the company claimed it had never conducted transactions with Huawei, either directly or indirectly.