USA bans TSMC from exporting AI chips to China
With immediate effect, TSMC is not allowed to supply chips with structure widths of 7 nanometers or less to China.
A wafer from TSMC.
(Image: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.)
Since Monday, TSMC is no longer allowed to supply particularly modern chips from its semiconductor plants in Taiwan to Chinese companies. The US Department of Commerce has instructed the world's largest semiconductor manufacturer to do so in a letter, as reported by the news agency Reuters, citing an anonymous source.
According to the report, the Department of Commerce has instructed TSMC accordingly via an "is informed letter". This is a special legal notice that informs companies that are subject to export restrictions that they are violating them and must comply with them. There is no direct confirmation of TSMC's action, but the company told Reuters that it would comply with national and international export restrictions. The Commerce Department would not comment on the report.
According to the Reuters source, the ban applies to all semiconductors that are suitable for AI computations and are manufactured in structure widths of 7 nanometers or less. This therefore affects all current AI accelerators, including GPUs, which are explicitly mentioned. Export restrictions have been in place for years for the latter, in particular Nvidia's RTX 4090. Since then, Chinese semiconductor manufacturers have increasingly been developing their own designs.
Source of TSMC technology in Huawei accelerators still unclear
However, it does not seem to be possible to do completely without technology from Taiwan, including older technology. A chip analysis recently revealed TSMC technology in Huawei's Atlas 300T A2 AI accelerator. This should not actually be the case, as TSMC has not been allowed to supply any chips to Huawei or manufacture them for its semiconductor subsidiary Hisilicon since 2020. In addition to Huwaei, this also applies to other Chinese companies; the Biden government wanted to add 120 more to the list of export bans back in August, but this has not yet happened.
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It is still unclear how TSMC technology can appear in Chinese products. As described in an earlier report, there are several possibilities, such as the stockpiling of older products, exact copies by Chinese semiconductor manufacturers or production by TSMC's partners via third-party companies. Even then, as now, TSMC has affirmed that it intends to adhere to the regulations.
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