The U.S. government has spent years weaving a web of controls to prevent Chinese companies from being able to buy or make cutting-edge computer chips.

多年来，美国政府一直在编织一张管制网，目的是让中国公司无法购买或制造尖端计算机芯片。

But several weeks ago, the maker of the world’s most advanced chips, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, learned that some of its chips had ended up in devices made by Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications giant under U.S. sanctions, according to two Taiwanese government officials who were not authorized to speak publicly.

但据两位未获公开发言授权的台湾政府官员称，几周前，世界上最先进芯片的制造商台积电获悉，其部分芯片最终被用于受美国制裁的中国电信巨头华为制造的设备中。

TSMC, which manufactures chips for tech giants like Apple and Nvidia, said that it had not supplied chips to Huawei since those restrictions went into effect. But TSMC continues to supply other major companies in China, and concerns have been growing among U.S. officials that other companies could be routing products to Huawei.

为苹果和英伟达等科技巨头生产芯片的台积电表示，自这些限制生效以来，该公司没有向华为供应芯片。但台积电继续向中国其他大公司供货，美国官员对其他公司可能向华为提供产品的担忧与日俱增。

The U.S. government has tried to keep advanced chips out of the hands of Chinese companies over concerns they could be used for military purposes. It has blocked Huawei and other Chinese firms from buying products made with American technology and pushed companies in allied countries including Japan and the Netherlands to stop selling to them.

由于担心先进芯片可能被用于军事目的，美国政府一直试图阻止中国公司购买这些芯片。美国政府阻止华为和其他中国公司购买使用美国技术制造的产品，并迫使日本和荷兰等盟国的公司停止向中国公司出售产品。

Still, chips used in artificial intelligence are actively traded in markets in China, despite U.S. restrictions, and Chinese companies have continued to develop the kind of technology that the American authorities are concerned about. They have made strides in artificial intelligence systems and the advanced microchips that power them.

不过，尽管有美国的限制，用于人工智能的芯片仍在中国市场上活跃交易，中国公司也在继续开发美国当局所担心的技术。它们在人工智能系统和驱动这些系统的先进微芯片方面取得了长足进步。

This progress, along with the presence of TSMC-made chips in Huawei devices, raises questions about how successful the U.S. controls have been at keeping advanced technology out of China, as well as how companies like TSMC vet their customers.

这一进展，以及台积电制造芯片在华为设备中出现，让人质疑美国的管制措施在阻止先进技术进入中国方面有多成功，以及台积电等公司是如何进行客户核查的。

The TSMC chips were found in the Ascend 910B, a Huawei processor that contains multiple types of computer chips and is used for training artificial intelligence models, according to an industry analyst and a former U.S. government official familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

据一位行业分析师和一位熟悉此事的前美国政府官员称，台积电的芯片出现在华为昇腾910B处理器中，该处理器包含多种类型的计算机芯片，用于训练人工智能模型。两人因未被获公开发言授权而匿名。

It is not clear how the TSMC chips ended up in the Huawei processors, or how many of those processors contained TSMC chips.

目前尚不清楚台积电芯片是如何进入华为处理器的，也不清楚有多少处理器含有台积电芯片。

Chinese companies have gone to great lengths to get around the U.S. restrictions. Many, including Huawei, scrambled to buy American technology before the United States legally shut off sales. Some stockpiled thousands of chips, while others sourced them from a thriving underground marketplace of smugglers.

为了规避美国的限制，中国公司煞费苦心。包括华为在内的许多公司在美国依法关闭销售之前争先恐后地购买美国技术。一些公司囤积了成千上万的芯片，还有一些公司则从生意红火的地下走私市场采购。

TSMC previously produced the chips for an earlier generation of the Huawei processor. A Huawei spokeswoman said that the company had not asked TSMC to produce any chips for it since the U.S. rule change in 2020. “We did stock up back then,” she said.

台积电曾为华为早一代处理器生产芯片。一位华为发言人表示，自2020年美国改变规则以来，该公司没有让台积电为其生产任何芯片。她说：“我们当时确实储备了很多。”

But the two people familiar with the matter said that a Chinese company had recently placed orders with TSMC for hundreds of thousands of chips in a design identical to one in a Huawei product.

但前述两位知情人士称，一家中国公司最近向台积电订购了数十万枚芯片，其设计与华为产品中的芯片完全相同。

One of the people said that the Chinese company was Xiamen Sophgo Technologies, and that the orders were placed this year.

其中一人说，这家中国公司是厦门算能科技有限公司，订单是今年签的。

Sophgo was founded and is partly owned by Micree Zhan, the chief executive of Bitmain, a Chinese company that makes computers used to mine cryptocurrency and processors for A.I. systems. Bitmain is one of TSMC’s most significant Chinese customers, said Min-yen Chiang, a nonresident fellow at the Research Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology, a government-funded think tank in Taipei.

算能科技由比特大陆首席执行官詹克团创立并拥有部分股份。比特大陆是一家生产用于挖掘加密货币的计算机和人工智能系统处理器的中国公司，也是台积电最重要的中国客户之一，由政府资助的台北智库科技、民主与社会研究中心的海外研究员江旻谚说。

Sophgo said in a statement that it had never engaged in any direct or indirect business relationship with Huawei and that its business had never been in violation of any U.S. export control laws.

算能科技在一份声明中表示，该公司从未与华为有任何直接或间接的业务关系，其业务也从未违反任何美国出口管制法律。

The Information first reported that the U.S. government was investigating whether TSMC had made chips for Huawei, and that TSMC had cut off shipments to Sophgo around the time the investigation began.

The Information网站首先报道了美国政府正在调查台积电是否为华为生产芯片，并且台积电已经在调查开始前后的某个时间停止向算能科技发货。

TSMC makes chips that are used to power everything from fighter jets to chatbots. As companies around the world have raced to develop advanced A.I. systems and the competition between the United States and China has intensified, demand for these chips has exploded.

台积电生产的芯片可为从战斗机到聊天机器人等一切产品提供动力。随着世界各地的公司竞相开发先进的人工智能系统，以及中美之间的竞争加剧，对这些芯片的需求也随之激增。

U.S. government officials charged with enforcing export controls face a difficult task: writing rules that restrict what private companies do in their operations outside the United States, according to Jacob Feldgoise, an analyst at the Center for Security and Emerging Technology at Georgetown University and an author of a report about the capabilities of Huawei’s Ascend 910 chips.

乔治城大学安全与新兴技术中心分析师、华为昇腾910芯片性能报告的作者雅各布·费尔德戈伊斯说，负责执行出口管制的美国政府官员面临着一项艰巨的任务：制定规则，限制私营公司在美国境外的业务活动。

TSMC said it maintained a robust export system for monitoring and ensuring compliance. “If we have any reason to believe there are potential issues, we will take prompt action to ensure compliance, including conducting investigations and proactively communicating with relevant parties, as we did in this situation,” the company said.

台积电表示，该公司拥有一套强大的出口系统，用于监控和确保合规。该公司表示：“如果我们有任何理由认为存在潜在问题，我们将迅速采取行动确保合规，包括开展调查和积极主动地与相关方沟通，我们在这次的情况下就是这样做的。”

The U.S. rules allow TSMC to sell some kinds of chips to Chinese companies that are not under sanctions. “These rules don’t outright prevent entities like TSMC from making advanced chips for Chinese clients,” said Mr. Chiang, the think tank fellow.

美国的规定允许台积电向不受制裁的中国公司出售某些种类的芯片。智库研究员江旻谚称：“这些规定并没有完全阻止台积电等实体为中国客户生产先进芯片。”

TSMC and Taiwanese government officials said the company had communicated with the U.S. Department of Commerce.

台积电和台湾政府官员表示，该公司已与美国商务部进行了沟通。

“TSMC discovered about two weeks ago that chips that were shipped a specific customer in the past had ended up in the hands of Huawei for unknown reasons,” said one of the Taiwanese officials.

其中一位台湾官员称：“台积电大约两周前发现，过去交付给特定客户的芯片最终落入华为手中，其原因不明。”

TSMC immediately stopped shipments to the company and informed both the U.S. and Taiwan governments, the official said.

这位官员说，台积电立即停止了向该公司发货，并通知了美国和台湾政府。

The U.S. Commerce Department declined to comment. A representative from the Investigations Bureau of Taiwan’s Ministry of Justice said it was looking into the reports but had not opened a formal investigation.

美国商务部拒绝发表评论。台湾法务部调查局的一名代表称，该局正在研究这些报道，但尚未展开正式调查。