Huawei executives visit Taiwan in October and invite TSMC to set up factories in mainland China

The Nikkei Asian Review (Nikkei Asian Review) reported on the evening of Thursday (14th) that Huawei executives visited the foundry leader TSMC in October to ensure the transfer of more advanced chip manufacturing capacity to mainland China.

The report pointed out that TSMC has recently encountered pressure from both the United States and China, all of which demonstrate the importance of Taiwan’s strategic position.

The report quoted sources as saying that in order to consolidate the stable supply of TSMC, Huawei executives visited Taiwan in October, mainly hoping that TSMC would deploy more advanced production to mainland China, because the advanced chips supplied by TSMC are crucial to Huawei’s survival. important.

TSMC spokeswoman Elizabeth Sun told the Nikkei Asian Review that TSMC would not comment on customer matters and reiterated that it has no plans to further shift advanced chip production to the mainland. Huawei responded that in accordance with company policy, it would not comment on the company’s high-level itinerary.

In addition to Huawei’s invitation to TSMC to set up factories in mainland China, TSMC has also been under pressure from American customers recently.

The New York Times reported at the end of last month that the U.S. Department of Commerce invited TSMC to set up a factory in the United States to ensure the security of the supply of advanced chips for military use. TSMC founder Zhang Zhongmou said at the TSMC Games on the 2nd: “When the world is not quiet, TSMC will become a battleground for geostrategists!”

TSMC is the world’s largest chip foundry and an important supplier to Apple and Huawei. Foreign media reported that the U.S. government has repeatedly tried to persuade Taiwan authorities to restrict TSMC’s supply of Huawei chips and other products to fill the gap in the U.S. trade ban on Huawei.

TSMC’s acting spokesman, Sun Youwen, responded on the 4th that this was an erroneous report, and there was no such thing. The U.S. government did not require TSMC not to ship to Huawei.