Beijing targets consultancy that does teardown reports on Huawei chips as tech war widens
The Chinese government has put a Canadian semiconductor consultancy, which is known for its reverse-engineering analysis of chips to track their source, on a trade blacklist in a sign of a widening tech war with the West.
Ottawa-based TechInsights was added to the “unreliable entity list” published by China’s Ministry of Commerce and banned from doing business with the country. Chinese individuals and organisations have been told not to “transmit data or provide sensitive information” to the firm.
The move came a few days after TechInsights generated headlines for publishing a report claiming that Huawei Technologies had used advanced components from Asia’s largest semiconductor firms, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, in some of its Ascend artificial intelligence processors.
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It was not the first time that TechInsights had exposed Huawei’s chip secrets through teardown reports on products from the Shenzhen-based tech giant, which was blacklisted by the US in 2019.
In October 2024, the consultancy published an analysis of Huawei’s most popular AI processor at the time, the Ascend 910B, saying the chips were produced by TSMC. That raised questions about whether Huawei skirted US sanctions, which prohibited it from using TSMC’s foundry services. Both TSMC and Huawei denied the report.
Huawei’s Kirin 9020 chipset. Photo: Handout alt=Huawei’s Kirin 9020 chipset. Photo: Handout>
TechInsight reports have been “attractive” to the global tech supply chain, including Chinese tech companies and consumers, for their “aggressive viewpoints and bold content”, said Chen Jia, an independent analyst in global strategy. However, he said it was “within expectation” that unauthorised teardowns would bring risk and legal issues given the intensified tech war.
The blacklisting move would also ring alarm bells for China-based tech consultancies and third-party reviewing agencies over potential data security and public policy risks, Chen added.
TechInsights was one of 14 overseas companies added to the unreliable entity list, with counter-drone tech providers Dedrone by Axon and DZYNE Technologies also blacklisted. They will be prohibited from engaging in import and export activities related to China. TechInsights subsidiaries in the US, Europe and South Korea were also added to the list.
TechInsights did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
The ministry said the move was to “safeguard national sovereignty, security, and development interests”. In a statement, the ministry said the blacklisted entities were found to have engaged in military and technological cooperation with Taiwan, and assisted foreign governments in suppressing Chinese companies, which “seriously undermined” national sovereignty and security.
The latest move by Beijing marks a widening of the US-China tech war, as it is rare for a Western consultancy business to be put on the blacklist.
It also came a day after the US Department of Commerce announced it had added a dozen companies based in China to its Entity List over their alleged roles in facilitating the purchase and use of American components found in weaponised drones, said to be operated by Hamas and Houthi militants in Yemen.
TechInsights, which was founded in 1989, provides technology intelligence services to the semiconductor and electronics industry. Many of its reports are “subscriber only” and not available to the public.
In recent years, the consultancy has gained fame among the tech community for its reports about the US-sanctioned telecommunications equipment giant, especially teardown analyses on chips used in Huawei’s products.
In 2023, TechInsights found that Chinese foundry Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) was behind the 7-nanometre Kirin processor inside Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro smartphone, which surprised the world as it was a sign that Huawei had made a comeback in the 5G handset market despite US sanctions.
Two years later, the consultancy found that Huawei and SMIC had faced challenges advancing their chip manufacturing to the 5-nm level. In a report published in June, TechInsights said Huawei’s newly launched MateBook Fold Ultimate Design laptop featured the Kirin X90 system-on-a-chip, which was manufactured by SMIC using a 7-nm process node.
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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