Why Computer/Cell Phone manufacturer, TSMC support Huawei?

In the face of US sanctions against Huawei, the problem of ARM command set authorization, Bluetooth, WiFi authentication and so on is not the most deadly.

As we all know, Huawei itself does not manufacture chips. Therefore, Huawei's weakest link relies on Computer/Cell Phone manufacturer, TSMC's advanced chip process foundry. Therefore, TSMC's response has received attention from all parties.

Computer/Cell phone chip manufacturer support Huawei

According to previous news, Huawei Kirin 985 will be the first to apply TSMC 7nm+ EUV technology, which is expected to be used in the Mate 30 series. In addition, Apple's A13, Qualcomm's Opteron 865 is also expected to use the upgraded 7nm process.

TSMC officially announced that it has begun mass production of 7nm N7+ process. This is not only the first time that TSMC has produced EUV EUV lithography technology in the industry, but also has significant significance. It indicates that TSMC's foundry level is ahead of Intel and Samsung. step.

In the face of the sensitive issue of whether to stop Huawei's foundry, in the first time when the US government restricted Huawei, TSMC publicly expressed its support to major customers, saying that “after preliminary evaluation, it should be in compliance with export control regulations and decide not to Change the shipment plan for Huawei and continue to ship Huawei."

In addition, at the 2019 Technology Forum of TSMC, spokesperson Sun Youwen once again stressed that TSMC absolutely complies with international trade international regulations, and has an export management system within the company. Every export and every customer will do due diligence, and the current investigation Later, I thought that "there is no need to change the way of exporting to Huawei."

TSMC's co-CEO Wei Zhejia also stated that the most important thing for TSMC is to cooperate with customers. Regardless of past, present or future, we sincerely hope that our customers will succeed. Only the success of our customers is the success of TSMC.

In other words, TSMC has stated its position on at least three occasions on several occasions and will not stop cooperation with Huawei.

Is the courage of the technology "American ingredient" less than 25%?

Regarding why TSMC can continue to ship to Huawei, Taiwan’s “World Magazine” quoted John Haberstock, a regional export control officer of the US Department of Commerce covering Japan and Thailand, on the 23rd, saying that Huawei was After being included in the “list of entities”, the parties must implement three types of goods, software and technology for the “export control” (EAR) of Huawei: first, located in the United States; second, from the United States (US-origin); And the most critical, and the third most concerned about the Taiwanese technology industry, "made overseas, but its content from the United States exceeds the upper limit."

For companies in most regions, this upper limit is 25%.

The memorandum obtained by the BBC reads that ARM is licensed to Huawei's computing core and contains "from the United States" technology. Some analysts speculated that ARM violated the "25%" limit because the company authorized one or several cores of Huawei, and the R&D center is located in the United States.

When asked if the company has completed the actuarial calculations and confirmed that TSMC has shipped the products to Hisilicon, the technology from the United States is less than 25%, TSMC spokesman Sun Youwen said, "(Export Trade Control) is not only this 25% rule, There are other rules, we have an internal sales management system to track and monitor all shipments to ensure we meet the rules."

Some professionals believe that Computer/Cell phone chip manufacturer,TSMC is very difficult to pass the "25%" level. The reason is that the production machines in the fab, such as etching and CMP (flattening) processes, are mostly from US equipment manufacturers.

However, foreign-funded analysts said that if the cost structure of a chip is carefully calculated, it is necessary to include R&D investment and management labor costs. The TSMC R&D team and the main management manpower are all in Taiwan. In the end, the "American component" is indeed very May be less than 25%.

But he also suggested that "this regulation leaves a vague zone. How do the US components count? It also gives these companies room to operate."

In response to the pressure from the United States to force Huawei to "cut off the supply", Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Hao pointed out that in fact, most countries have a fresh memory of the French Alstom company's foresight, the US government The use of state power to suppress other enterprises, interfere with market operations, and obstruct the mutually beneficial cooperation of other countries has always maintained a high degree of vigilance.

Lu Wei reiterated that we hope that all countries in the world can continue to provide a fair, just, stable and predictable business environment for Chinese enterprises to invest in operations and cooperation. I believe this is in line with the fundamental and long-term interests of all countries.

Huawei has enough stock for delivery, no problem in the short term research.

In addition, according to Taiwan media, TSMC has become an indicator of “Huawei concept stocks” in recent years. Huawei’s HiSilicon is second only to Apple’s TSMC’s second largest customer, accounting for 8% of Taiwan’s revenue last year. In the first and second quarters, it reached an astonishing 11%.

A Taiwanese technology industry analyst revealed that in the first half of this year, Hais’s 16-nanometer orders were almost slain, which almost saved the first and second quarter results of TSMC.

In addition, he also said: "My old friend, Huawei, is saying that it is ready, there is no problem in the short term,"

"Huawei is better than others, but the analyst circles are discussing how to sell so well? Isn't it so much that it won't change inventory?" The analyst recalled the situation at the time, and now suddenly everything is suddenly clear.

He described: "There is a reason for stocking, just like before the Pearl Harbor incident."

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