TSMC reportedly stops taking orders from Huawei after new U.S. export controls
Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's largest contract semiconductor maker, has stopped taking new orders from Huawei Technologies, one of its largest customers, according to the Nikkei Asian Review. The report said the decision was made to comply with new United States export controls, announced last Friday, that are meant to make it more difficult for Huawei to obtain chips produced using U.S. technology, including manufacturing equipment.
Huawei hits back at US as TSMC cuts off chip orders
Huawei rotating chairman Guo Ping has hit back at the US government's stricter export controls intended to stop the Chinese tech giant from obtaining essential chips, following reports that its biggest supplier has already cut it off. "We still haven't figured it out," Guo said on stage at Huawei's annual analyst summit. "The US government still persists in attacking Huawei, but what will that bring to the world?"
"In its relentless pursuit to tighten its stranglehold on our company, the US government has decided to proceed and completely ignore the concerns of many companies and industry associations," Huawei adds in an official statement. "This decision was arbitrary and pernicious, and threatens to undermine the entire industry worldwide. This new rule will impact the expansion, maintenance, and continuous operations of networks worth hundreds of billions of dollars that we have rolled out in more than 170 countries."
"We expect that our business will inevitably be affected," Huawei's statement continues. "We will try all we can to seek a solution."
See also: Huawei Braces for Latest U.S. Hit, but Some Say Loopholes Remain
TSMC Accepts US Kill Order & Suspends Future Huawei Contracts
Previously: U.S. Attempting to Restrict TSMC Sales to Huawei
Washington in Talks with Chipmakers about Building U.S. Factories
TSMC Will Build a $12 Billion "5nm" Fab in Arizona
Related Stories
US poised to restrict TSMC's chip sales to China's Huawei
The United States has been aiming to curb the supply of chips sold by contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) to China's Huawei Technologies Co. through planned heavier sanctions against the Chinese telecom equipment giant, according to a Reuters report.
The report said while tensions between Washington and Beijing have been escalating with both sides blaming each other for spreading the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the Trump administration has a plan to introduce new measures to further restrict global chip sales to Huawei.
Under the proposed new rules, the report, dated Thursday (March 26) in Washington, said foreign companies that use U.S. production equipment to roll out their chips would be required to obtain a U.S. license ahead of sales of certain chips to Huawei, which was blacklisted last year.
Boon for Apple, AMD, Nvidia, etc. or a disaster in the making?
Also at Tom's Hardware.
See also:
AMD is set to become TSMC's biggest 7nm customer in 2020
Report: TSMC's Reducing Its Reliance on Huawei Amid US Government Scrutiny
Related:
AMD Says TSMC Can Meet Epyc Demand; Launches New, Higher-Clocked 64-Core CPU
How China Plans to Lead the Computer Chip Industry
Washington in talks with chipmakers about building U.S. factories:
(Reuters) - The Trump administration is in talks with semiconductor companies about building chip factories in the United States, representatives from two chipmakers said on Sunday.
Intel Corp (INTC.O) is in discussions with the United States Department of Defense over improving domestic sources for microelectronics and related technology, Intel spokesman William Moss said in an emailed statement.
"Intel is well positioned to work with the U.S. government to operate a U.S.-owned commercial foundry and supply a broad range of secure microelectronics", the statement added.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) (2330.TW), on the other hand, has been in talks with the U.S. Department of Commerce about building a U.S. factory but said it has not made a final decision yet.
"We are actively evaluating all the suitable locations, including in the U.S., but there is no concrete plan yet", TSMC spokeswoman Nina Kao said in a statement.
[...] The Trump administration's discussions with chipmakers were reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal, with the report adding that TSMC also has been talking with Apple Inc (AAPL.O), one of its largest customers, about building a chip factory in the United States.
[...] The Journal had also reported that U.S. officials are looking at helping South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co (005930.KS), which has a chip factory in Austin, Texas, to expand its contract-manufacturing operations in the United States.
The U.S. Commerce Department, Samsung and Apple did not respond to requests for comment on Sunday.
TSMC to build a $12 billion advanced semiconductor plant in Arizona with U.S. government support
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's largest contract semiconductor foundry, said today that it plans to build an advanced chip foundry in Arizona with support from the state and the United States federal government.
The announcement follows a Wall Street Journal report earlier this week that White House officials were in talks with TSMC and Intel to build foundries in the U.S., as part of its effort to reduce reliance on chip factories in Asia. Based in Hsinchu, Taiwan, TSMC provides chip components for many of the world's largest semiconductor companies and its U.S. clients include Apple and Qualcomm.
The plant, scheduled to start production of chips in 2024, will enable TSMC's American customers to fabricate their semiconductor products domestically. It will use the company's 5-nanometer technology and is expected to create 1,600 jobs and have the capacity to produce 20,000 wafers a month.
The U.S.-China trade war, national security concerns, geopolitical unrest and the COVID-19 pandemic have all underscored the shortfalls of relying on foundries located abroad and international supply chains.
The U.S. government has reportedly been in talks with TSMC for months, though one sticking point for the company was the high cost of building a new foundry. TSMC chairman Mark Liu told the New York Times in October that the project would require major subsidies because it is more expensive to operate a factory in the U.S. than in Taiwan.
Also at AnandTech, The Verge, CNN, South China Morning Post, Wccftech, and Bloomberg.
Previously: U.S. Attempting to Restrict TSMC Sales to Huawei
Washington in Talks with Chipmakers about Building U.S. Factories
Related: TSMC Holds Groundbreaking Ceremony for "5nm" Fab, Production to Begin in 2020
TSMC Has Started Development of a "2nm" Process Node
UK reportedly planning to phase out Huawei equipment from its 5G networks
After resisting pressure from the US for months, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is apparently preparing to phase out the use of Huawei equipment from the UK's 5G networks, the Financial Times reported. Citing national security concerns, members of the UK's Conservative party have pushed for Huawei technology to be removed from the UK's 5G infrastructure and the rest of its telecom network by 2023.
[...] Trump reportedly called Johnson earlier this year to discuss the matter, and at least one member of Congress said the US was reconsidering its intelligence partnership with the UK.
Johnson had limited how much Huawei equipment could be used for 5G networks in the UK, banning the use of the company's technology in the most sensitive parts of the network. He said in January that there were not a lot of other options available for the UK's 5G infrastructure, and telecom Vodafone said removing Huawei equipment from its networks would be extremely costly.
See also: Reports: UK to cut Huawei's involvement in 5G network
Boris Johnson forced to reduce Huawei's role in UK's 5G networks
Previously:
U.S. Intelligence Agency Heads Warn Against Using Huawei and ZTE Products
Huawei's Equipment Removed from UK Telecom BT's Network for Emergency Services
EU to Drop Threat of Huawei Ban but Wants 5G Risks Monitored
UK to Toughen Telecoms Security Controls to Shrink 5G Risks
How China Is Building A World-Beating Phone Network
Using Huawei in UK 5G Network 'Madness', Says US
Getting Huawei Out of US Networks Requires Gov't Funding, Senators Say
Huawei Fires Back, Points To US' History Of Spying On Phone Networks
TSMC Dumps Huawei
SMIC, the operator of the largest semiconductor foundry in China, has adopted a pivotal role in the ongoing multi-faceted spat between the U.S. and China. The company has become the focal point of a concerted effort by Beijing to maintain a continuous supply of semiconductors to the local industry even as Washington tries to thwart this flow, as evidenced by the Trump administration's efforts to block silicon heavyweights around the globe from delivering semiconductor components to Huawei or its affiliate HiSilicon.
Nonetheless, SMIC appears ready to deploy its added heft in order to secure economic gains. As an illustration, in a filing with the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Sunday, the company revealed that it will raise as much as 46.29 billion yuan or $6.55 billion by selling new shares on the exchange at a price of 27.46 yuan per share. Interestingly, the latest financing target is more than double the 20 billion yuan that SMIC originally sought to raise.
[...] As stated earlier, leading Chinese tech enterprise have been subjected to a relentless volley by Washington over the recent months as the multifaceted spat between the U.S. and China continues to escalate. Back in May, the U.S. banned the export of any semiconductor that incorporated American technology to Huawei or its affiliate, HiSilicon. Given these evolving dynamics, Huawei is now increasingly relying upon the silicon components sourced from SMIC for the wide range of its products.
See also: How much trouble is Huawei in?
Intel resumes shipment to Chinese server maker Inspur
Huawei builds up 2-year reserve of 'most essential' US chips
Previously: China Lags Behind Other Countries in Semiconductor Manufacturing
China's SMIC Produces its First "14nm" FinFET Chips
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) Starts "14nm" FinFET Volume Production
How China Plans to Lead the Computer Chip Industry
TSMC Dumps Huawei
Huawei to stop making flagship chipsets as U.S. pressure bites, Chinese media say:
Huawei Technologies Co will stop making its flagship Kirin chipsets next month, financial magazine Caixin said on Saturday, as the impact of U.S. pressure on the Chinese tech giant grows.
U.S. pressure on Huawei's suppliers has made it impossible for the company's HiSilicon chip division to keep making the chipsets, key components for mobile phone, Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei's Consumer Business Unit was quoted as saying at the launch of the company's new Mate 40 handset.
[...] "From Sept. 15 onward, our flagship Kirin processors cannot be produced," Yu said, according to Caixin. "Our AI-powered chips also cannot be processed. This is a huge loss for us."
Huawei's HiSilicon division relies on software from U.S. companies such as Cadence Design Systems Inc or Synopsys Inc to design its chips and it outsources the production to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), which uses equipment from U.S. companies.
Also at PhoneArena.
Previously: Arrest of Huawei Executive Causing Discontent Among Chinese Elites
Huawei Soldiers on, Announces Nova 5 and Kirin 810
U.S. Attempting to Restrict TSMC Sales to Huawei
TSMC Dumps Huawei
Huawei on List of 20 Chinese Companies that Pentagon Says are Controlled by People's Liberation Army
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Revek on Tuesday May 19 2020, @01:48AM (10 children)
Its crazy that china buys so much from Taiwan but insists its a rouge state.
This page was generated by a Swarm of Roaming Elephants
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DrkShadow on Tuesday May 19 2020, @01:55AM (7 children)
It's crazy... this whole thing.
China considers Taiwan a property of its own, its companies shall be subject to Chinese law. 1. You will not ignore Chinese companies. 2. You will stop producing chips for American companies. 3. Here is our army that will ensure your factory does 1 and 2.
Now the US is without AMD chips, without nVidia chips, without Xilinx chips, without chips for all of the little gadgets, media players, game consoles, etc. I think Intel chips come from Malaysia (or they used to), but don't use TSMC or they'd be at 5nm.
Oh god oh god oh god...
(Score: 2) by legont on Tuesday May 19 2020, @03:32AM (5 children)
All of it on an island 245 miles long with 23 million people.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by HiThere on Tuesday May 19 2020, @03:34AM (4 children)
If Taiwan were less strategically vulnerable, this would make more sense. As it is....perhaps TSMC should fork into two companies, one to deal with China and one to deal with the US under officially separate ownership.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 1, Troll) by DannyB on Tuesday May 19 2020, @07:04PM (1 child)
Maybe China will simply "annex" Taiwan.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 4, Touché) by HiThere on Tuesday May 19 2020, @08:42PM
They've been working on that for ... well, a century now.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday May 20 2020, @01:51AM (1 child)
Do you believe it would protect the management from being arrested similar to Huawei's manager by Canada?
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday May 20 2020, @03:05AM
There are probably ways to do it. Note that Huawei isn't a separate company when it deals with the US and with China. (This would be difficult for something incorporated within China.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 19 2020, @08:25PM
This is something that a lot of people don't realize. Many of these wafers are actually produced in another country, then shipped to a country for packaging. Notably Intel chips were fabbed in Costa Rica and the US, but many were then packaged in Malaysia, leading to Costa Rica or Malaysia on the packaging but the actual chips coming from either Costa Rica or the US. AMD had both packaging and fabrication in Germany for some/all of the K10 generation, then moved to TSMC dies which were assembled somewhere else (Was it malaysia, germany or somewhere else?)
Point being the labels often don't tell you much about where the parts are actually manufactured/sourced from without having insider knowledge and a papertrail from somewhere else.
(Score: 4, Funny) by driverless on Tuesday May 19 2020, @04:03AM
It's China that's rouge (communist), not Taiwan. Taiwan is more green (money).
(Score: 3, Informative) by Sulla on Tuesday May 19 2020, @05:19PM
When the China trade negotiations started Taiwan independence was on the table as a concession that we would accept in exchange for less favorable trade deals. Xi made it clear that Taiwan was owed by China and not on the table, and that any country recognizing Taiwan would be an act of war. At this point Taiwan has more members in its parliament that are Taiwanese natives than it does Chinese. Taiwan warned the WHO about human-to-human transmission on Jan 1, but were ignored because the WHO said they already received verified information from China so nothing from Taiwan was needed.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday May 19 2020, @03:50AM (6 children)
This will surely slow down technological progress, and raise prices.
Maybe paranoia about embedded spyware is justified. But these moves are highly preemptive and negative. It's the wrong approach to the potential problem. Building our own infrastructure is a much better idea. Couldn't we do only the latter, and lay off the provocative and discriminatory policy choices? November can't come soon enough.
I remember a brief period we could get this Kumho brand o tire for just $20 per. Way, way cheaper than any other brand. The tire store inflated that to $50 per tire with all their mounting fees, disposal fees, and so on. But it was still nice to get a whole new set of tires for only $200, and they were even decent quality, not the low end 30k mile stuff. Today, it's tough to get a new set of 4 for less than $500. Kumho was Chinese of course. Then the US imposed dumping fees, tariffs, and all that, and the $20 tire vanished from the marketplace never to be seen again.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday May 19 2020, @04:01AM (2 children)
Not necessarily. There are many smartphone brands that aren't affected. And as a result of Huawei getting the boot, there will be more TSMC capacity available for AMD, Apple, Nvidia, Qualcomm, etc. AMD recently became TSMC's biggest customer for at least a quarter and is using a lot of "7nm" capacity for next-gen console chips this year, constraining the amount of desktop CPUs and GPUs it can make. As the leader in semiconductor manufacturing, TSMC will have no trouble finding companies to fill Huawei's gap.
As for technological progress, TSMC is on [wikichip.org] that [soylentnews.org].
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by driverless on Tuesday May 19 2020, @04:05AM (1 child)
That assumes all the other companies have the necessary orders and bucketloads of money lying around to fill the gaps. More likely TSMC will be severely hurt by losing their second largest source of revenue and have to severely curtail investment in new plants and processes. Result: Everyone loses, not just Huawei.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by petecox on Tuesday May 19 2020, @05:38AM
It's a perfect storm with covid's forthcoming global recession causing a drop in demand for consumer electronics generally.
Conversely, with US companies on shoring to TMSC's American plant, reduced demand could see more favourable 5nm conditions for locals such as mediatek (that $99 Walmart tablet) and rockchip (arm64 Chromebook) with resulting extra bang for buck at the low end.
But, if I were an industry pundit, South Korean Samsung sits on the sidelines with anticipation.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 19 2020, @02:27PM (2 children)
How long ago was this? Kumho Tires was only bought by a Chinese company in 2018. It was originally a South Korean company.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday May 19 2020, @06:30PM (1 child)
About 20 years ago, as I recall.
South Korean? We didn't check, just thought it had to be China, with that kind of name and price.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 19 2020, @08:30PM
Kumho has been a well respected brand of tire (even performance tires!) for 30+ years. They were the OEM tire for a number of japanese cars from the 1990s who didn't use Bridgestone/Firestone tires.
My sports car had kumho tires almost 30 years ago now.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 19 2020, @06:30AM (1 child)
The US navy in the China sea is the reason China has not invaded and assimilated Taiwan back into the mainland. Taiwan is justifiably very pro US.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday May 19 2020, @01:55PM
Fuck Taiwan, we need to just accept those who want to move to the US as refugees, moving some of the more critical tech infrastructure over here as well, then trade Taiwan to China outright in exchange for a handsome prize.
Maybe having the Chinks back out of the South China sea, or providing a list of China-owned American politicians, or a trade deal much more beneficial to the U.S., etc.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Bot on Tuesday May 19 2020, @06:33AM
Keep discussing the commercial world war three, it's probably all about "who installs 5g owns the territory" or "maybe the coronavirus scare is all about masking 5g deployment", the end of the world, yawn.
Quite more interesting is that the head of Huawei, a networking supercorporation, is called PING.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by EJ on Tuesday May 19 2020, @08:15AM (10 children)
Pearl Harbor happened because we protected China during WW2. That was a different China. For all our efforts to put sanctions on Japan, look at what we got.
Now, Japan is our friend, and the changed China is more of a world-enemy. I wonder what the world would be like if we had just let Japan have their way with China back then. Maybe we wouldn't have gotten involved in WW2 until it was too late to stop the Nazis. Who knows?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by loonycyborg on Tuesday May 19 2020, @08:24AM (8 children)
Western powers have no friends in Asia. Because friendship cannot be maintained by power of arms (Opium wars etc). China was world's trade leader for millennia, though sometimes its power waned due to various crises. Now it bounces back again after British Empire lost its power and its last splinter state, US, is on decline. To them British/US domination is not different than Mongol domination before.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 19 2020, @05:24PM
Very true, thousands of years of "progress" and their people have never been able to advance further than serfdom to a Emperor.
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Tuesday May 19 2020, @06:02PM (3 children)
The hell are you on about? Of course Japan is an ally to the West, and the US, especially. Who else are they going to side with? China? Russia? And you think they'd have their trust/loyalty?
(Score: 2) by loonycyborg on Tuesday May 19 2020, @10:52PM (2 children)
For sure not with someone who nuked them. They could be semi-willing vassal though, because otherwise they're diplomatically isolated. They engaged in genocide against Chinese, etc..
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Monday June 01 2020, @03:34PM (1 child)
So their choice is between allying with the most powerful country in the world or being surrounded on all sides by enemies...I'll need a bigger brain to figure that one out!
(Score: 2) by loonycyborg on Tuesday June 02 2020, @07:21AM
The only sane choice in such situation is to cease to exist and their demographic trend shows that that's exactly what they're doing.
(Score: 2) by quietus on Tuesday May 19 2020, @07:06PM (2 children)
Were they, really? Then they sure must have exported a lot to the rest of the world in that period, no?
What can you name, apart from silk and porcelain vases? Which advanced technology were they famous for?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 19 2020, @07:11PM (1 child)
Fireworks. And therefore explosives.
(Score: 2) by quietus on Wednesday May 20 2020, @05:43AM
They used these for firing arrows, not bullets. The Europeans improved the recipe so it could be used with cannons (which required advanced metallurgic technology) and later, guns.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 19 2020, @08:31PM
Of course we should have stayed out of WW2. Germans are the racial brothers and cousins to the majority in the US during that time and were only defending themselves against the International Jew interlopers and saboteurs. The Germans, whose name means "Saviours of The People" in Iceland for their defense of Europe against the Huns (this is why the Jews and their slaves mock the Germans by calling them Huns as a serious disrespect to their sacrifice), made a valiant effort, but finally fell to the previously compromised, if not all-out conquered, Goy slave states (allies). Patton was starting to figure it out at the end of the war as he watched te Russians (controlled by Bolshevik Jews) rape the German women and children and the allies were done melting civilians in the streets with their carpet bombing. Bomb factories owned by the International Jew..