TSMC, which is the world’s largest chip maker, may be on hook for billion 1 billion or more According to Reuters In which “two people are familiar with the matter … who has requested not to disclose his name because he did not have the authority to talk about the matter publicly.” And although billion is not 1 billion for TSMC, it is also difficult to change.
The penalty is allegedly in the form of a settlement in which semiconductor Dev will have to pay as a result of an alleged investigation by the US Department of Commerce as a result of whether it has broken export rules by making chips in the hands of a Chinese company Huawei.
At the end of last year, allegedly TSMC Informed the US There is a TSMC chip in a Huawei Product (Class 910B AI processor). After the government, the government Place the computing design company Sofago In order to be mediped between the TSMC and Huawei, in the name of the “entity list”, possibly without the knowledge of TSMC.
Huawei was already on the list, so US companies already needed a license to export Huawei, and now a license is also needed to export Sofago. TSMC needs to follow these restrictions because some of its machines and goods are American -made.
If these sources are correct, it seems that the US government is investigating the matter and may have been facing a violation of these export restrictions to the TSMC. However, of course, even if the company violated, it might not be deliberate.
According to Reuters sources, a $ 1+ billion penalty is “exported by export control rules, which impose a double price of rules violating transactions.”
According to TSMC’s Nina Kao, the company has not given anything to Huawei since 2020. The 1+ billion fine may seem in the form of a “charging letter” which will give the company time to respond – so if the sources are correct, it seems that it may not be a contract yet.
Talking more widely, now, although TSMC has recently announced an investment of $ 100 billion in the United States, it is not out of export of export sanctions. And Trump’s recent strong arm diplomacy must certainly not give TSMC an idea.
We have to wait for the official word of the US Commerce Department or TSMC to say anything.
