TSMC was overdated by the compliance of the US anti -Chinese sanctions – no one expected this

Under the curtain of its political activity, the administration of Joseph Biden in mid -January managed to introduce additional restrictions on the access of Chinese developers of chips to technologies and the equipment of American origin in the production of chips. As it turns out, new restrictions will complicate the life of not only those Chinese developers of chips that specialize in the artificial intelligence segment.

Image Source: Intel

Initially, it was believed that Chinese companies will save access to the conveyor of the same Taiwan TSMC if they use more rough than 14-nm and 16-nm processes, place no more than 30 billion transistors on the crystal, and also do not use the services of contractors for packaging chips that did not get into the “white list” compiled by the US authorities. As Nikkei explains, in practice everything turned out to be more complicated, and even TSMC customers who are in no way related to the artificial intelligence segment will suffer from new export restrictions.

TSMC herself notified her Chinese customers that they could not ship the ready-made 16-nm chips crystals for them if they do not guarantee their further supply exclusively to packaging enterprises from among the list approved by the US authorities. This requirement even applies to those chips that can not be used for the artificial intelligence segment and contain less than 30 billion transistors. TSMC will not supply chips to those customers who are used to pack the enterprise of foreign companies located in China. TSMC customers refuse will have to encounter even if the relevant chip packaging company is in the “white list” with the US authorities. If its company is located in China, this forces TSMC to refuse to supply the relevant batch of products to this enterprise.

Of course, such a TSMC policy forced many of its Chinese customers to look for new contractors for packing chips urgently. Chinese customers also have a chance to preserve the existing logistics route and the production chain if they receive an export license directly to the United States. Those customers who use 16-nm or more thin TSMC processes, this company forces to fill out documents in which they confirm that their products do not violate the US restrictions on the number of transistors placed on the crystal. In general, TSMC customers are allowed to use the services for packing chips of just more than twenty companies, and there are no Chinese among them at all.

The desire of the American authorities to control the packaging services of the chips is explained by the fact that Chinese developers could try to circumvent restrictions on the number of transistors placed on monolithic crystals through the combination of several chips with general equivalent performance on one substrate. It is assumed that the Chinese semiconductor industry is now making serious efforts to develop its competencies in this area. Initially, even the leadership of TSMC believed that the January wave of American sanctions would not be able to significantly affect the business company with Chinese clients. So far, information about the additional difficulties of the Chinese business in working with TSMC is unofficial, representatives of the Taiwanese manufacturer are commenting on the situation only with standard formulations on the need to comply with the law.