Sanctions are no obstacle: Huawei continues to receive 7-nm chips from TSMC through intermediaries

Despite the tightening of export controls by the United States, foreign components have been found in Huawei’s new Ascend 910C AI accelerators. Although the company claims to have developed the chips entirely independently, researchers have found the use of sanctioned technologies, including TSMC 7nm chips.

Image Source: Wccftech.com

As TechPowerUp reports, citing research from analysts at SemiAnalysis, contrary to popular belief, the Ascend 910C accelerators, although designed in China, are manufactured using foreign technology. The Ascend chip may be manufactured at the Chinese foundry SMIC, but in practice it uses HBM memory from South Korean manufacturer Samsung, silicon wafers from Taiwanese manufacturer TSMC, and manufacturing equipment from the United States, the Netherlands, and Japan.

Analysts paid special attention to the issue of the origin of the crystals themselves. According to SemiAnalysis, Huawei was able to bypass restrictions in the production of Ascend 910B and 910C chips by purchasing 7-nm wafers for $500 million through Sophgo. There is also unconfirmed information about ongoing supplies from TSMC through third parties.

It was previously assumed that the production of these chips could be localized at the facilities of the Chinese SMIC factory, which is testing its own 7-nm N+2 process technology, which is an intermediate stage between the first 7-nm chips (N+1) and future 5-nm developments. However, according to experts, Huawei prefers more mature and reliable technologies, despite the political risks.

It is worth noting that Huawei is not the only Chinese company collaborating with TSMC. Xiaomi also continues to use Taiwanese production facilities without restrictions, although not for the creation of high-performance AI chips.