TSMC halts Ascend 910B shipments to firm suspected acting as a Huawei proxy

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But implicated Chinese firm Sophgo denies any Huawei links.

Huawei
(Image credit: Huawei)

TSMC has stopped supplying production to China-based Sophgo, which is believed to be a proxy that Huawei used to make its Ascend 910B, Reuters reports. The decision is directly connected with the recent discovery that TSMC supplied Huawei via a proxy despite the U.S. export restrictions.

Reuters says that Sophgo had ordered a chip (allegedly called the Ascend 910B) from TSMC that closely resembled the Ascend 910 processor originally made by TSMC. TechInsights uncovered the 'close resemblance' and issued a paper detailing that the chip was indeed manufactured by TSMC and not by SMIC, as reported at some point previously.

In response to the halt, Sophgo reportedly issued a statement asserting that it fully abides by all legal requirements and maintains no direct business links with Huawei. The company, which has ties to Bitmain, a well-known cryptocurrency mining equipment producer, also conducted an internal investigation. To clarify its position, Sophgo submitted a report to TSMC, aiming to confirm it was uninvolved in any unauthorized transfer to Huawei.

The U.S. Department of Commerce acknowledged it was aware of reports that U.S. export restrictions might have been breached but declined to comment on any ongoing investigation, according to Reuters. Sophgo's supply chain connections have therefore attracted scrutiny due to potential risks around export control violations, though the department refrained from addressing specific case details, according to Reuters.

Huawei’s attempt to manufacture a chip through TSMC reflects a larger strategy to continue leveraging Western-designed technologies. The company often conceals its chip suppliers to avoid potential conflicts with its partners if any suppliers are cut off, which is exactly the case for now. One method of Huawei's circumvention of sanctions employs purchasing chips or wafers indirectly, using third parties to secure the necessary components, and then obscuring these connections through various tactics.

We debated, in the Tom's Hardware newsroom, whether this approach might be feasible for advanced processors like Huawei's Ascend or Kirin - yet here we are. Proxies work and only one has gotten caught.

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Anton Shilov
Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

6 Comments Comment from the forums
  • thth
    It is not the Ascend 910B chip. AI cards contains dozens of other types of chips besides the AI Chip. Sophgo sells RISC-V SoCs and micro-controllers. They are commodity items and Huawei can just buy them in the open market.

    Ascend cards also have HBM memory chips. Currently there are no HBM manufacturers in China. They are only made by SK Hynix, Samsung and Micron. But Huawei somehow buy them and use in their cards. That doesn't mean those companies violated sanctions.

    Even the latest Huawei phones use South Korean RAM chips that were manufactured after sanctions, so Huawei might have bought them in the open market.

    Sophgo made a statement that they did not supply anything to Huawei. But people are gonna assume they did any way because they are a Chinese company. However, it is trivial for anyone to acquire those kinds of chips from retailers without the knowledge of the manufacturer. It's really no different from Huawei still buying South Korean memory chips.
    Reply
  • Pierce2623
    Well how exactly does a company with no connection to Huawei have all the specs and tech info necessary to produce Huawei’s proprietary AI chip? How stupid would people have to be to believe there’s no connection?
    Reply
  • Pierce2623
    thth said:
    It is not the Ascend 910B chip. AI cards contains dozens of other types of chips besides the AI Chip. Sophgo sells RISC-V SoCs and micro-controllers. They are commodity items and Huawei can just buy them in the open market.

    Ascend cards also have HBM memory chips. Currently there are no HBM manufacturers in China. They are only made by SK Hynix, Samsung and Micron. But Huawei somehow buy them and use in their cards. That doesn't mean those companies violated sanctions.

    Even the latest Huawei phones use South Korean RAM chips that were manufactured after sanctions, so Huawei might have bought them in the open market.

    Sophgo made a statement that they did not supply anything to Huawei. But people are gonna assume they did any way because they are a Chinese company. However, it is trivial for anyone to acquire those kinds of chips from retailers without the knowledge of the manufacturer. It's really no different from Huawei still buying South Korean memory chips.
    No people assume there’s a connection to Huawei because they’re ordering a Huawei proprietary AI chip from TSMC that only Huawei can legally sell. Even in China they can’t just gegHuawei’s newest proprietary AI chip produced and sell it as a Sophgo without Huawei’s involvement.
    Reply
  • thth
    Pierce2623 said:
    No people assume there’s a connection to Huawei because they’re ordering a Huawei proprietary AI chip from TSMC that only Huawei can legally sell. Even in China they can’t just gegHuawei’s newest proprietary AI chip produced and sell it as a Sophgo without Huawei’s involvement.

    From the original report it was reported it is an auxiliary chip rather than the main compute chip. It would be hard to trick TSMC into manufacturing the main Chip, because TSMC used to manufacture that chip for Huawei before 2021. If some other company came with that design TSMC would spot that in a second. In fact TSMC told FT that it did happen some time ago. Some other company came with 910B design and TSMC turned them down and informed US authorities.

    Then there was another unrelated news of a TSMC chip on 910B card (not the main chip), which is now being identified as a Sophgo chip. I am guessing this is just one of the products Sophgo sells out in the open rather than a custom chip for Huawei. Bitmain's main customer's are in the West, so I can't believe they would risk supplying something to Huawei. But anything is possible of course.

    These are two different things which has now been mixed up by some newspapers.
    Reply
  • Pierce2623
    thth said:
    From the original report it was reported it is an auxiliary chip rather than the main compute chip. It would be hard to trick TSMC into manufacturing the main Chip, because TSMC used to manufacture that chip for Huawei before 2021. If some other company came with that design TSMC would spot that in a second. In fact TSMC told FT that it did happen some time ago. Some other company came with 910B design and TSMC turned them down and informed US authorities.

    Then there was another unrelated news of a TSMC chip on 910B card (not the main chip), which is now being identified as a Sophgo chip. I am guessing this is just one of the products Sophgo sells out in the open rather than a custom chip for Huawei. Bitmain's main customer's are in the West, so I can't believe they would risk supplying something to Huawei. But anything is possible of course.

    These are two different things which has now been mixed up by some newspapers.
    Bitmain still has customers? People are still buying mining ASICs?
    Reply
  • williamcll
    Pierce2623 said:
    Bitmain still has customers? People are still buying mining ASICs?
    Yes, Bitcoin prices are still going high despite random drops.
    Reply