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Semiconductors
Tech

TSMC keeps mum over Huawei licence amid rising demand for chips on 5G smartphones, mobile networks

  • TSMC’s chief executive described as ‘unfounded’ recent reports that the company was granted a licence by the US government to continue supplying chips to Huawei
  • The world’s largest dedicated chip foundry has been the contract chip maker for HiSilicon, Huawei’s semiconductor design unit

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The Trump administration’s latest trade restrictions on Huawei Technologies further complicates the company’s efforts to find an alternative supplier of chips for its smartphones and telecommunications equipment. Photo: AP
Che Pan
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chip maker, said on Thursday that it did not ship any products to Huawei Technologies after September 15, when new US trade restrictions on the Chinese telecommunications giant took effect.

TSMC chief executive C C Wei declined to comment on speculation that the company has applied to the US government for a licence to continue supplying chips to Huawei, the world’s largest telecoms equipment maker and China’s biggest smartphone vendor.

“We don’t want to comment on our [licence] status right now,” said Wei during the company’s September earnings conference call on Thursday. “We noticed that there is a report saying TSMC got a licence. We are not going to comment on this unfounded speculation.”

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On August 17, the Bureau of Industry and Security under the US Department of Commerce further restricted access by Huawei and its non-US affiliates on the government’s Entity List to items produced in the US and abroad if they were made with American software and other technology.

Washington requires foreign chip makers that use US technology, including Taiwanese suppliers TSMC and MediaTek, to apply for a licence to sell chips to Shenzhen-based Huawei. It essentially chokes off Huawei’s ability to acquire any off-the-shelf chips developed or produced using US technology.

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Recent Chinese media reports, however, said TSMC has been granted such a licence by the US Commerce Department. TSMC has been the contract manufacturer of integrated circuits (ICs) designed by HiSilicon, Huawei’s semiconductor unit.

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