Xiamen Sophgo, a Chinese chip manufacturer, denied any commercial relationship with Huawei following its termination by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.
Xiamen Sophgo, a Chinese semiconductor designer with connections to Bitmain, denied any business relationship with Huawei following Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC)’s decision to terminate business relations with it in response to a United States investigation into potential sanctions violations.
Xiamen Sophgo Denies Supply to Huawei
Sophgo had procured chips from TMSC identical to those discovered on Huawei’s Ascend 910B, according to a report from Reuters on October 27 that cited two sources with knowledge of the situation.
According to a report from The Information on October 17, the US Department of Commerce initiated an inquiry into whether TSMC, which has been subject to US sanctions since 2020 due to national security concerns, knowingly supplied processors to Huawei.
Nevertheless, Sophgo refuted the existence of any commercial relationship with Huawei in a statement published on its website.
Sophgo stated that the US investigation into TSMC and Huawei was unrelated to its products and that it had never engaged with Huawei directly or indirectly. “Sophgo has been conducting business in strict compliance with all relevant laws and regulations,” it stated.
The Information, citing two individuals familiar with the matter, reported that the US Commerce Department and TSMC discovered that “chips TSMC made for Xiamen Sophgo had designs similar to those of Huawei’s artificial intelligence chips.”
Micree Zhan, a co-founder of Bitmain, established Sophgo in 2019. There are reports that Bitmain and Sophgo share numerous email directories and domain registries.
In 2018, Bitmain initiated an investigation into the development of AI chips under Zhan’s guidance, aiming to expand its chip offerings beyond the realm of cryptocurrency.
This change in strategy resulted in a disagreement between Zhan and his fellow co-founder, Jihan Wu, who maintained that the company should concentrate solely on the production of Bitcoin mining machines.
In October 2019, Zhan was ultimately terminated from the organization due to this discrepancy and other concerns. At a technology conference in China, Zhan was abruptly relieved of his duties while introducing Bitmain’s “third generation” AI Chip, the Sophgo BM1684.
