TSMC can do business with Huawei again, but with a reportedly epic twist

[Redaktion]

The current US administration put Huawei on its Entity List, which ultimately led to the OEM's being cut off from vital suppliers such as TSMC. However, that company has now obtained a license to once again sell to the Chinese electronics giant. Then again, the terms of this new allowance may render it considerably less of a reprieve for Huawei than it sounds.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/TSMC-can-do-business-with-Huawei-again-but-with-a-reportedly-epic-twist.497697.0.html

[toven]

So 28nm and above are not security risk concern?

[t4n0n]

So 28nm and above are not security risk concern?

The fabrication process itself isn't the security risk, it's the mechanism by which the security risk is inserted.

If Huawei can't produce competitive 5G electronics, because it's limited to legacy process nodes, no-one will buy their equipment and thus the Chinese intelligence apparatus won't get backdoors into other country's communications infrastructure.

[faddasdas]

The only "security risk" for US is that China is starting to overtake them financially and they don't like this. So they come up with these sanctions and limitations to stop China from overtaking them. Frankly China should also start and limit US by not allowing them to export manufacturing facilities and not gain money from China market. Seems fair to me.

[S.Yu]

The only "security risk" for US is that China is starting to overtake them financially and they don't like this. So they come up with these sanctions and limitations to stop China from overtaking them. Frankly China should also start and limit US by not allowing them to export manufacturing facilities and not gain money from China market. Seems fair to me.

Huawei and ZTE are heavily subsidized by the CCP, so the US is debating subsidizing non-Huawei/ZTE, that's fair, of course, but tariffs are also fair.
As for the CCP banning this and that, they do that all the time, mostly under the table. Because they have total control, almost all domestic affairs can be dealt with under the table. Most of what they're not banning, they're not in a position to ban, like Nvidia and ARM. They want to ban the merger so badly, but good thing they're not in a position to. Nvidia is dominant in machine learning and ARM in mobile electronics, they could do their worst and ban both from China entirely, but that would result not only in a huge blow to multiple industries but also additional retaliation from the US and possibly EU. China dances like a puppet to the fingers of the CCP's few oligarchs at the top, good thing somebody's trying to stop them now or it would certainly be too late, it would turn into a disaster like Persia's destruction of Greece.

[S.Yu]

Regarding 28nm, plenty of chips could still use 28nm, dedicated processors(e.g. quite a few camera processors should still be on 28nm), microcomputers of home appliances...in fact in the scope of phones everything should pass except the RAM, flash, the SoC and of course analogs, some of which are on specialized processes.

So 28nm and above are not security risk concern?

The security concerns were related to 5G equipment provided by Huawei 'Telecommunications', which have been found to be quite valid - considering that countries that have not spoken against Huawei, have cleverly banned it anyway like Canada , France , Japan , India and most recently Britain too. Its just the US has been the most outspoken against Huawei & China, other countries have seen the dangers & threat of Huawei too and slyly sidelined it.
Now, coming back to the "28 nm node" issue, those TSMC sanctions were put because of a different crime by Huawei - Selling prohibited technology to Islamic Repbulic of Iran for malicious purposes, despite the sanctions & also using the advanced node to develop weapons technology for military purposes using US tech. Also, all the theft by Huawei is a big reason too. I leave you with this .

Ha, don't forget Sweden who's under flak from the Chinese Foreign Ministry for this just earlier today!
You hit the nail on the head that many countries see this as an issue, just that they try to keep a low profile to avoid Chinese retaliation, which can be grossly disproportional because that's the way the current Chinese system works, to the whims of a handful of Party elites. The US just added a few Chinese state-associated media to a list of foreign actors, which only requires more registration of their activities, and does not interfere with their reportage, while China responds by expelling US reporters, talk about "fair". lol, the US explanation was pretty accurate, "China will do what it's gonna do", and US actions are just an excuse.

[S.Yu]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/how-big-tech-factors-into-the-us-china-geopolitical-competition/ar-BB1aiRFK?ocid=spartanntp
Good read. Very informative. China doesn't follow international norms and it's paying off very well. The US needs to get down and dirty, not fight with one hand tied by ideology.

[Jonah]

"Update: TSMC has responded to us at NBC dismissing the original report claiming it could supply Huawei with wafers, albeit from 'mature' nodes only as 'based on groundless market speculation'.  This, then, apparently leaves both parties involved in a state of business as usual."
I am sorry, but this update is still a little ambiguous. What does 'business as usual' mean here ? Huawei can work with TSMC on the latest nodes ? or No business whatsover can take place between Huawei and TSMC ?