US-China fight over chip kingpin rattles tech industry

Since its founding more than three decades ago, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co has built its business by working behind the scenes to make customers like Apple Inc and Qualcomm Inc shine. Now the low-profile chipmaker has landed squarely in the middle of the US-China trade war, an incalculably valuable asset that both sides are vying to control.

The Trump administration opened up a new front in the conflict on Friday by barring any chipmaker using American equipment from supplying China’s Huawei Technologies Co without US government approval. That means TSMC and rivals will have to cut off Huawei unless they get waivers from the US Commerce Dept. TSMC has already stopped accepting new orders from Huawei, the Nikkei newspaper reported Monday.