Huawei appears to still be using TSMC chips despite US sanctions

A Canadian research firm called TechInsights took a deep dive on one of Huawei’s artificial intelligence accelerators and found a chip manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). Bloomberg spoke with several people familiar with the investigation who asked to remain anonymous since TechInsights’ report has been released to the public.

The anonymous sources says TechInsights’ investigation found an Ascend 910B chip made by TSMC in one of Huawei’s AI accelerators. The company that conducted the investigation declined to comment.

Reuters reports that TechInsights informed TSMC of its findings before publishing its report. This prompted TSMC to notify the US Commerce Department earlier this month. The Financial Times reports, citing people familiar with the matter, that TSMC told the department that a customer had placed orders for a chip similar to Huawei’s Ascend 910B. One of the FT‘s sources said that TSMC “had spoken both to the customer involved and to the commerce department” after recieving the suspicious order.

The US Commerce Department implemented additional trade restrictions against Huawei that barred the electronics company from obtaining chips made by foreign firms. Earlier this year, the US government tightened its restrictions even further by revoking its licenses with Intel and Qualcomm to produce chips for its devices.

TSMC denied that it had a working relationship with Huawei since mid-September of 2020 in a statement provided to the Commerce Department. TSMC also told Bloomberg that it hasn’t produced any chips for Huawei due to the amended restrictions. Huawei denied that it had ever “launched the 910B chip.”

This isn’t the first time Huawei has been caught trying to subvert US sanctions and trade restrictions. Bloomberg also uncovered in May that Huawei funded secret research in the US at universities including Harvard by funneling the money through a Washington-based scientific research foundation called Optica. The foundation said it decided to return the money in June and chief executive officers Elizabeth Rogen and Chad Stark stepped down the following August.

Update, October 22, 7:10PM ET: This story was updated after publish with more details from the Financial Times‘ reporting on the matter.