The Commerce Department of the United States is looking into whether SMIC illegally obtained US tools to make the Kirin 9000S chip. The US is investigating SMIC for violating export rules for the Huawei Mate 60 Pro chip. Senior departmental official Alan Estevez claims that the chip manufacturer may have violated export regulations; however, the situation is still being evaluated.
The declaration comes after a legislative hearing recently and reports that the Biden organization is thinking about a prohibition on 4 more chip producers, including Semiconductor Assembling Worldwide Corp (SMIC), Huawei’s supplier of the 7nm FinFET SoC.
The Huawei Mate 60 Star, alongside a modest bunch of other Mate and nova 12 telephones, run on a Kirin 9000S chipset that was worked in spite of the US’s boycotts. The company has declined to officially comment on the matter multiple times.
In spite of Washington’s ongoing efforts to cripple the company, the phone is seen as a symbol of China’s revival, according to Reuters. Estevez was quoted as saying that their team is “certainly sharing concerns” that SMIC used American tools to manufacture a 5G-enabled chipset, but that they cannot discuss any investigations that may or may not be underway.
