The U.S. has blacklisted Sophgo Technologies, an AI chip company owned by Bitmain co-founder Zhan Ketuan, over concerns that its chips might be used in Huawei products to evade sanctions. U.S. officials believe that Sophgo is working on behalf of Beijing to enhance China's chipmaking capabilities. Zhan's shift in focus from cryptocurrency hardware to AI chips caused internal conflicts within Bitmain. The blacklisting has cut off Sophgo from the leading chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, and there are concerns that this may also impact Bitmain. Bitmain, known for dominating Bitcoin mining hardware, had considered an IPO in 2018 but faced challenges due to Bitcoin's declining value.



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