this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2025
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Exclusive: TSMC could face $1 billion or more fine from US probe, sources say (www.reuters.com)
submitted 6 days ago by IndustryStandard@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
13 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

April 8 (Reuters) - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (2330.TW) could face a penalty of $1 billion or more to settle a U.S. export control investigation over a chip it made that ended up inside a Huawei AI processor, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The U.S. Department of Commerce has been investigating the world's biggest contract chipmaker's work for China-based Sophgo, the sources said. The design company's TSMC-made chip matched one found in Huawei's high-end Ascend 910B artificial intelligence processor, according to the people, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

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[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 13 points 6 days ago

Sounds an awful lot like a shakedown

[–] MuskyMelon@lemmy.world 23 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Trump also threatened TSMC with 100% tariffs:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/trump-says-he-told-taiwan-s-tsmc-he-d-slap-a-100-tax-on-it-if-it-didn-t-make-its-chips-in-the-us/ar-AA1CzlPz

[–] MisterMoo@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago

Trump threatens a lot of things to get attention.

[–] cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 4 days ago

smart driving taiwan back into the arms of china and driving up costs for the world's chips exponentially

[–] hamsterkill@lemmy.sdf.org 11 points 6 days ago

From the article, it sounds like TSMC's part in this was just negligence as Huawei used a front company to make the order for them — like a 14-year-old getting an adult to make a booze purchase. If they get fined, it seems unlikely it would be for the maximum amount.

[–] 0x0@lemmy.zip 4 points 6 days ago (2 children)

How is the US gonna fine a company from Taiwan?
I guess said company could always hike export prices to match the fine...

[–] Technoguyfication@sh.itjust.works 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

They just built a massive chip fab outside Phoenix so there’s clearly some US-based division the government has jurisdiction over.

[–] 0x0@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 days ago

That's for the low-end stuff, but yeah.

[–] hamsterkill@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 6 days ago

How is the US gonna fine a company from Taiwan?

They use US tech in their foundries, and thus are subject to export controls to make sure sanctioned entities (like Huawei) don't benefit from it.

[–] decipher_jeanne@jlai.lu 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Can they do that? Wasn't the ban on US companies exporting AI chips to china. Taiwan wasn't in the export ban directly, just a side effect. Or am I miss understanding the situation?

[–] hamsterkill@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 5 days ago

The issue is a TSMC-made chip ended up inside a Huawei processor. They're not allowed to make chips for Huawei or other US-sanctioned entities since they use US tech inside their foundries.

What happened here is that TSMC made chips for another Chinese company that gave them to Huawei (and is now on the sanctioned list as well as a result, but wasn't when TSMC made the chips). The problem for TSMC is if the US determines they should have reasonably known there was a risk the company they made the chips for would give them to Huawei.

[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

Dumbshittery is afoot!

[–] Adrien_0715@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 days ago

No wonder I feel like it's hella difficult to receive payment from our clients.