Tuesday, February 18th 2020
US Government Could Stop Chip Shipments from TSMC to Huawei
US Government, precisely the Trump administration, is considering placing a ban on chip export from TSMC to Huawei. With Huawei being in the middle between the US and China fight for global technology dominance, the Trump administration is seeking to limit the progress of foreign forces trying to match or beat US technology. There were previous efforts by the US government to influence Huawei's fate, with them claiming that Huawei 5G equipment is capable of supplying China with intelligence, meaning that China tries to spy on US citizens. While those claims were later disregarded by Huawei, the Trump administration managed to do some damage to the face of the company.
The TSMC representative who spoke to Reuters about the potential ban said that the company (TSMC) does not answer hypothetical questions and that they don't talk about their customers. To achieve more control over the China semiconductor manufacturing, the US government plans to place a licensing model on all of their US-made semiconductor equipment, meaning that all the production lines are possibly in danger if the US doesn't approve shipments of their machines to other countries.
Source:
Reuters
The TSMC representative who spoke to Reuters about the potential ban said that the company (TSMC) does not answer hypothetical questions and that they don't talk about their customers. To achieve more control over the China semiconductor manufacturing, the US government plans to place a licensing model on all of their US-made semiconductor equipment, meaning that all the production lines are possibly in danger if the US doesn't approve shipments of their machines to other countries.
23 Comments on US Government Could Stop Chip Shipments from TSMC to Huawei
As an aside, Of hource Hauwei would claim they are innocent, how many convicted criminals still claim they are innocent? The chinese have a long history of spying on other countries, as do many of their citizens living in other countries. not much of a stretch to say the chinese phones are collecting data for china, just like US phones collect data for the US.
The fabs are not in the US. That's my question. Outside of the washington sub, there ISNT any "US made semiconductor equipment", is there? What equipment would TSMC be buying from the US instead of making themselves or being able to source from other countries?
For all the bluster about Huawei, what the heck did they do to stop them from operating & profiting using essential US tech including Android ~ the answer is nothing, because there's only so many levers they can pull before CCP hits them hard.
Huawei is in fact, by all accounts TSMC's biggest client at least in terms of volumes. So just like the many eyeball grabbing headlines before this, the Huawei "ban" will whimper away yet again :ohwell:
www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/Issues/2019/07/18/WEOupdateJuly2019
www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-huawei-tech-indictment-idUSKBN2072KG
This is why everyone in China has smartphones: it's how China controls their population stopping public discontent before it starts. USA does not want similar police states being established elsewhere where saying anything against the government will result in near immediate arrest and reeducation.
Capitalism isn't a game, but a idea that has raised more people out if poverty than any other "game" that's been tried.
Also TSMC,GF,etc have more fabs than everyone thinks. They are just not listed and inconspicous for security precautions. You might even have one near you and not know it. datacenters do that as well.