Sophgo, Bitmain deny ties with Huawei’s supply chain

Chinese fabless chip maker Xiamen Sophgo and bitcoin mining equipment supplier Bitmain have denied any business relationship with Huawei Technologies after being accused of having asked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to produce Ascend 910B chips.

TSMC has suspended shipments to Sophgo after an Ascend 910B processor, an artificial intelligence (AI) chip developed by HiSilicon, was found on a Huawei AI accelerator, Reuters reported on October 27, citing two unnamed people familiar with the matter.

The report came after TechInsights, a Canada-based information platform for the chip industry, said in a report on October 9 that it found the Ascend 910B on a Huawei Atlas 300T A2 AI training card. The Information reported on October 18 that the US Commerce Department has started an investigation into whether TSMC is directly or indirectly supplying Huawei with smartphone and AI chips.

“The investigation of the US Commerce Department on possible TSMC-and-Huawei link is not related to Sophgo and its product. Sophgo has never engaged in any direct or indirect business relationship with Huawei,” Sophgo said in a statement on October 27.

“Sophgo has been conducting business in strict compliance with applicable laws and regulations, including but not limited to all the applicable US national export control laws and regulations, and has never been in violation of any of such laws and regulations,” it said.

It added that it has provided a detailed investigation report to TSMC to prove that it is not related to the Huawei investigation.

Luring Taiwanese chip engineers

Sophgo was founded in April 2019 by Micree Zhan, a co-founder of Bitmain. According to its website, Sophgo focuses on the research and development (R&D),