The US has added Sophgo Technologies, the AI ​​chip company owned by Bitmain founder Chan Ketuan, to its trade blacklist.

The US has blacklisted an AI chip company founded by Bitmain founder Chan Ketuan, whose products may end up in Huawei's products.

According to the Financial Times a reportUS officials believe that Sophgo was “acting at the behest of Beijing” to bolster China’s chipmaking capabilities. The report also mentions a difficult time at the point when Chan shifted focus to AI chips, which caused some internal struggles.

The problem started when Chan diverted resources to developing an artificial intelligence chip. The report notes that his push to move beyond encryption devices caused internal conflict.

“We are a company focused on high-performance processors. We started with cryptocurrency processors and now we are entering artificial intelligence, it is a new field of application but not a complete focus.”

Chan told a gathering in Beijing in 2017.

The blacklisting puts Sophgo in a tough spot, cutting it off from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world's leading manufacturing company. Some concern this can affect a bitmap as well. However, TSMC insists that it fully complies with global regulations.

Chan's path began back in 2013 when he collaborated with Wu Jihan, a crypto enthusiast, to create a bitmap. The company quickly rose to dominate Bitcoin mining hardware, reaching $2.5 billion in revenue by 2017. Bitmain also owned BTC.com and Antpool, which were among the largest Bitcoin mining pools.

In June 2018, Wu announced that Bitmap was Consider an IPO To allow early investors to exit. The company went on to complete its $1 billion pre-primary registration with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in August and filed for an IPO in September. However, in March 2019, Bitmain's IPO application expired in Hong Kong, six months after it was filed, with investors concerned about the decline in the value of Bitcoin taking advantage.