Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. discovered this month that chips it made for a specific customer ended up with Huawei Technologies Co., a potential violation of US sanctions intended to sever the flow of technology to a Chinese national champion.

TechInsights informed TSMC of the chip before publishing its findings in a report, the person said, prompting the Taiwanese firm to notify the U.S. Commerce Department a couple of weeks ago.

The teardown was of Huawei's Ascend 910B, another source said. The 910B is viewed as most advanced AI chip available from a Chinese company. The first source would not identify the item, but said the TSMC chip was one within a multi-chip system.