TSMC Cut Off Chinese Crypto Mogul’s Firm as US Probes Huawei Link

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. earlier this month stopped making chips for a China-based chip design firm founded by a Chinese crypto mogul, said two people familiar with the situation. TSMC cut the company off around the time the U.S. Commerce Department began investigating whether the Taiwanese giant had supplied chips to Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies.

Huawei has been prohibited since 2020 from acquiring chips made with U.S. technology, including those produced by TSMC, because it was deemed a “threat to U.S. national security.” The Taiwanese chip giant uses U.S. technology in its manufacturing and has said it complies with U.S. law.