TSMC publicly warns: AI chips may be rerouted to China's Huawei, unable to fully control downstream customer usage.

TSMC ( has acknowledged for the first time in its latest annual report that, under the pressure of the US-China tech war and export controls, the company cannot fully grasp the "backend usage" of its customers, making it difficult to prevent products from being transshipped to restricted entities by third parties. This statement actually echoes last year's incident involving the "Huawei Ascend 910B AI chip," where TSMC was pointed out for indirectly dumping to the sanctioned Huawei, attracting external follow.

TSMC Reveals Key Dilemma: Customers' Uses Are Opaque, Unable to Fully Grasp the Flow

TSMC clearly stated in the report: "Our role in the supply chain inherently makes it difficult to grasp the final product's purpose and its users."

In other words, even if TSMC complies with U.S. export control regulations, it is difficult for the company to fully grasp how customers or third parties subsequently use these chips.

Accused of indirectly supplying Huawei, TSMC reported to the US and Taiwan governments last year.

Last year, the Canadian technology research institute TechInsights pointed out that Huawei's Ascend 910B AI chip contains components produced by TSMC.

TSMC stated that after discovering the anomaly, it immediately halted the dump to that customer and proactively reported to the U.S. and Taiwanese governments in October 2024 about the possible situation of "chips being transshipped to restricted parties."

TSMC has also complied with the U.S. request by providing relevant documents.

The United States demands TSMC and Samsung to strengthen internal controls, while Chinese companies face a new round of sanctions.

Earlier this year, the U.S. government once again imposed a new round of export restrictions on AI chips, specifically requiring companies such as TSMC and Samsung to conduct stricter reviews of their customers.

At the same time, the United States has added 16 Chinese companies to its blacklist, including Xiamen Suan Neng Technology Co., Ltd., which is related to the chip flow of Huawei, )Sophgo Technologies(.

In addition, the Singaporean company PowerAir Pte has also been added to the sanctions list, reportedly related to the chip transshipment incident.

No matter how hard we try, we cannot guarantee 100% compliance.

TSMC emphasizes, especially in cooperation with multiple wafer-less ) fabless ( companies, such as:

NVIDIA )

Qualcomm (Qualcomm)

MediaTek (MediaTek)

After manufacturers are commissioned to produce them, these chips are likely to be integrated into mobile phones and AI devices, and it cannot be guaranteed that all customers' subsequent uses will be legal.

The US-China tech war is intensifying, and the risks of chip transportation are hard to prevent.

This time TSMC reflects the dilemma faced by Taiwanese enterprises in the U.S.-China tech war.

Even with compliant operations and strict controls, it is still difficult to prevent third parties from circumventing and transferring to sanctioned targets. In the future, as export controls are upgraded, Taiwanese semiconductor companies may have to face more complex "customer usage risk" management pressures.

This article TSMC publicly warns: AI chips may be transferred to Huawei in China, unable to fully control downstream customer usage. First appeared in Chain News ABMedia.