TSMC is suspected by US authorities of collaborating with sanctioned Huawei

According to official data, the Taiwanese company TSMC stopped supplying components of its production to the needs of the Chinese Huawei Technologies back in May 2020, but The Information today stated that the US Department of Commerce has reason to suspect the Taiwanese manufacturer of cooperation with Huawei after this period, when US sanctions were already fully operational.

Image source: Huawei Technologies

The American department has even launched an investigation aimed at finding evidence of such cooperation between TSMC and Huawei. The first of the companies, in comments to Reuters, hastened to declare that they are law-abiding, and, if necessary, are ready to cooperate in every possible way with the investigation to prove their innocence. American officials suspect that Huawei could receive from TSMC components for computing accelerators and processors for smartphones produced on its order. American officials approached TSMC with relevant requests a few weeks ago, as reported by The Information.

The American side has reason to believe that TSMC supplied Huawei with components for the Mate 60 series smartphones, although previously it was generally accepted that the 7-nm HiSilicon processors in them were manufactured by the Chinese company SMIC using older equipment than that available to TSMC. American officials are now interested in how thoroughly TSMC checks the final recipients of its products, and whether Huawei had the opportunity to order it through a chain of shell companies.