Long-term U.S. sanctions on Huawei chip tech proved porous: Analysts

A few analysts recently pointed out that the long-standing U.S. sanctions on Huawei chip tech have proven porous. The statement came after TSMC was suspected of supplying chipmaking tools and other important parts to the Chinese phone maker.

U.S. authorities are probing TSMC these days as TechInsights found a key component made by the Taiwanese firm in the Huawei processor. Read the story HERE.

This led to major discussion among U.S. lawmakers and congressmen for “security concerns”. They even ordered TSMC to respond on this matter at the earliest.

Amid the investigation, some analysts said that the long-term U.S. sanctions seemingly have loopholes for the Huawei chip tech. It didn’t affect the company rather helped it to become independent in advanced semiconductor manufacturing.

One of these analysts is Arisa Liu, the Director of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research. She says:

“US long-term sanctions on China’s semiconductor sector have proven to be porous.”

TSMC said that it hasn’t shipped any chips to Huawei since September 2020. Huawei also added that the company hasn’t developed any chips via TSMC after the U.S. sanctions. Hence, the confusion on how a TSMC SoC made its way to Huawei persists.

Long-term U.S. sanctions on Huawei chip tech proved porous: Analysts (Image Credits: TSMC)

However, the current scenario hints that the strict U.S. restrictions as well as trade rules aren’t affecting much to Chinese companies. Following such converse, the U.S. authorities may increase the trade export controls on China in the future.

Huawei is constantly improving its chips using native technologies. The company has said that its Ascend 910B chip is doing great and can draw level with the Nvidia A100. Ascend 910C is also in the pipeline and will soon join the processor series.

It would be worth seeing how this ongoing investigation on TSMC and China’s chipset growth will proceed in the coming days.

Huawei silently testing Ascend 910C AI chip to rival Nvidia: Report

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