Revoking exemption, the US targets TSMC's mainland chip factories in Taiwan.

According to the Global Times, following Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix of South Korea, the US government has revoked the authorization for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to ship necessary equipment to its major chip plant in mainland China. Analysis on the island believes that this move will impact TSMC's ability to produce chips in mainland China. The Taiwan-based China Times reported on the 3rd that US officials recently notified TSMC that they have decided to terminate TSMC's "Validated End User" status for its Nanjing plant, following the same practice as when the US revoked the VEU status for Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix's mainland factories. The report stated that TSMC's Nanjing plant is mainly responsible for mature processes, including 16nm and 28nm, which are mainly used for mainstream chips in automotive electronics, Internet of Things, smartphones, consumer electronics, etc. In May last year, TSMC announced that it obtained VEU authorization from the US Department of Commerce, but on September 2nd it was confirmed that they received a notification from the US that the authorization would expire on December 31st of this year and be revoked. TSMC stated that they are evaluating the situation of the revocation and taking appropriate response measures, including communicating with the US government to ensure that the operation of the Nanjing plant is not affected.