Sophgo a company associated with Bitmain refutes claims of providing AI chips to Huawei

Xiamen Sophgo, a Chinese chip designer with ties to Bitmain, has refuted any association with Huawei after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) terminated its business dealings with Sophgo due to a US investigation into potential violations of sanctions. As reported by Reuters on October 27, sources familiar with the matter revealed that Sophgo had ordered chips from TSMC that were similar to those used in Huawei’s Ascend 910B. The US Department of Commerce initiated the investigation into whether TSMC knowingly supplied chips to Huawei, which has been subjected to US sanctions since 2020 on grounds of national security concerns, as reported by The Information on October 17. However, Sophgo denied any business relationship with Huawei in an official statement on its website, asserting that it had always operated in compliance with applicable laws and regulations. The US Commerce Department and TSMC allegedly discovered that the chips made for Sophgo by TSMC had designs resembling Huawei’s artificial intelligence chips, according to The Information’s sources. Sophgo was established in 2019 by Micree Zhan, a co-founder of Bitmain. Bitmain and Sophgo reportedly still share certain domain registries and email directories. In 2018, Bitmain began exploring AI chip development under Zhan’s direction in order to diversify its chip offerings beyond cryptocurrency. This strategic shift created friction between Zhan and fellow co-founder Jihan Wu, who believed that the company should solely focus on manufacturing Bitcoin mining rigs. Ultimately, this difference in opinion, along with other issues, led to Zhan’s removal from the company in October 2019. Zhan’s abrupt departure coincided with his introduction of Bitmain’s “third generation” AI Chip, the Sophgo BM1684, at a tech conference in China.