TSMC Secures Waiver from USA to Supply Chips to Chinese Factories

Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC has received a waiver extension from the United States to supply U.S. chip equipment to the company's factories in China, Taiwan Economy Minister Wang Mei-hua announced on Oct 13. Last October, the Biden administration issued a broad set of export controls, including a measure to bar China from purchasing certain semiconductor chips manufactured anywhere in the world using U.S. tools, vastly expanding the reach of a bid to slow Beijing's technological and military advances.

The South Korean government announced this week that Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix will be permitted to supply U.S. chip equipment to their China factories indefinitely without the need for separate U.S. approvals.

TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, announced last year that the US had granted it a one-year licence for its factory in Nanjing, China, which produces less-advanced 28 nanometre chips. Wang told reporters that she believed the waiver extension had been extended for TSMC as well, but she did not elaborate.

Her ministry referred additional questions to TSMC, which did not respond immediately to a request for comment. The company is currently in a quiet period ahead of the release of its third-quarter earnings report on Oct 12.