TSMC employees stroll down a hallway in a chipmaking fab in Taiwan. The firm is constructing three such crops in Arizona.
TSMC
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. stated on Tuesday that it had detected “unauthorized activities” that led to the invention of potential trade secret leaks.
The world’s largest semiconductor producer informed CNBC that it has taken “strict” disciplinary motion in opposition to the personnel concerned and that it has additionally launched authorized proceedings.
“TSMC maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward any actions that compromise the protection of trade secrets or harm the company’s interests,” the corporate stated.
“Such violations are dealt with strictly and pursued to the fullest extent of the law. We remain committed to safeguarding our core competitiveness and the shared interests of all our employees.”
Semiconductors have grown in strategic significance in recent times as they’ve turn out to be the important thing pillar within the increase in synthetic intelligence fashions and purposes. Rising geopolitical tensions has put the highlight on the aggressive technological benefits of main corporations within the chip provide chain like TSMC and different leaders throughout the board.
TSMC, headquartered in Taiwan, dominates the marketplace for the manufacturing of the world’s most superior chips and counts main tech giants together with Apple and Nvidia as shoppers.
As the case is now beneath judicial overview, TSMC is unable to supply additional data, the agency stated.
TSMC recognized the problem early because of its “comprehensive and robust monitoring mechanisms,” the corporate stated, including that it carried out swift inner investigations.
Nikkei Asia, citing a number of sources conversant in the matter, reported on Tuesday that a number of former workers of TSMC are suspected of making an attempt to acquire crucial proprietary data on 2-nanometer chip improvement and manufacturing whereas they have been nonetheless working on the firm.
Production of the 2-nanometer chip is among the many vanguard manufacturing processes within the semiconductor trade at the moment. TSMC stated it didn’t have any further data to share when requested by CNBC in regards to the Nikkei report.
As the world’s main chipmaker, TSMC has a treasure trove of mental property. By its personal account, the corporate has beforehand said it has greater than 200,000 trade secrets and techniques recorded in its inner system.
It is just not the primary time that TSMC has been the goal for potential theft. In 2018, a Taiwanese court docket indicted a former worker for copying trade secretes associated to the 28-nanometer fabrication course of, with intent to switch them to a semiconductor firm in mainland China.
In 2023, ASML, which makes machines which are required to fabricate essentially the most superior chips, stated that it discovered {that a} former worker in China had misappropriated data associated to its proprietary expertise.