Canadian semiconductor research institute TechInsights has discovered that some of Chinese tech giant Huawei’s top artificial intelligence (AI) chips use components from major semiconductor companies in Taiwan and South Korea.
According to a Bloomberg report on the 3rd, TechInsights found during a teardown that at least some of Huawei’s Ascend AI chips incorporate advanced parts from Asia’s largest technology corporations, highlighting that as China seeks to improve its domestic AI semiconductor production, it remains dependent on overseas hardware.
In a statement, TechInsights said they had found components from TSMC, Samsung Electronics, and SK Hynix in several samples of Huawei’s Ascend 910C chips.
Headquartered in Ottawa, TechInsights determined through its investigation that the dies (unpackaged chips) used in Huawei accelerators were manufactured by TSMC. They also found an older generation high-bandwidth memory, HBM2E, produced by Samsung and SK Hynix. TechInsights noted that components from these two manufacturers were discovered in two different samples of the Ascend 910C chip.
Currently, during China’s National Day holiday, Huawei has not responded to requests for comment.