The U.S. Department of Commerce has sent Taiwanese chip maker TSMC a letter informing it that the United States will begin imposing export restrictions on complex chips that use a process technology of 7 nanometers or more. This is in response to a self-report from the company after one of their chips was found in a CCP-connected (and banned) company Huawei.
US orders Taiwanese company to stop selling AI chips to China – Reuters
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According to the source, the US Department of Commerce sent a letter to TSMC. The letter states that it will impose export restrictions on certain complex chips with a process technology of 7 nanometers or more destined for China, which are used in artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators and graphics processing units (GPUs).
The US order, which is reported for the first time, comes just weeks after TSMC notified the Department of Commerce that one of its chips was found in a Huawei AI processor. The research firm Tech Insight reportedly took apart the product, found the TSMC chip and an apparent export control violation.
Reuters writes that Huawei is on the US list of trade restrictions, which requires suppliers to obtain licenses to supply any goods or technologies of the company. In this regard, any license that could help Huawei’s AI efforts is likely to be rejected.
According to a Reuters source, as a result of receiving the letter, TSMC informed affected customers that it would stop supplying chips starting Monday. The US Department of Commerce declined to comment.