TSMC activists walk under a hallway in a chipmaking fab in Taiwan. The company is manufacturing three such plants in Arizona.
TSMC
Taiwan semiconductor manufacturing co –On Tuesday, it said that it had discovered “unauthorized activities”, making a possible trade secret leak.
The world’s largest semiconductor manufacturer told CNBC that it had taken “strict” disciplinary action against the personnel involved and has also initiated legal proceedings.
The company said, “TSMC holds a zero-optional policy towards any task that compromises the safety of trade secrets or damages the company’s interests,” the company said.
“Such violations are strictly dealt with and extended to the entire extent of the law. We are committed to our main competition and protecting the common interests of all our employees.”
The semiconductors have increased in strategic importance in recent years as they have become a major column in artificial intelligence models and bounce in applications. Growing geo -political stresses have put a spotlight on competitive technical benefits of major firms in the chip supply chain such as TSMC and other leaders across the board.
TSMC, headquarters in Taiwan, dominates the market for the creation of the world’s most advanced chips and calculates major technical giants Apple And Nvidia As customers.
As the matter is now under judicial review, TSMC is unable to provide further information, the firm said.
TSMC launched the issue due to its “comprehensive and strong monitoring mechanisms”, the company said, saying that it conducted Swift internal investigation.
Nikkei AsiaCiting several sources familiar with the matter, on Tuesday, many former TSMC employees are suspected of trying to get a 2-nenometer chip development and important ownership information on production, while they were still working in the company.
The production of 2-nanometer chip is currently among the leading lead manufacturing processes in the semiconductor industry. TSMC said that there was no additional knowledge to share it when asked by CNBC about the Nikkei report.
As the world’s major chipmaker, TSMC has a treasure of intellectual property. From your own account, the company is first Said There are more than 200,000 business secrets recorded in its internal system.
This is not the first time that the TSMC has been aimed at potential theft. In 2018, a Taiwan court inspired a former employee to copy the trade secret related to the 28-nenometer construction process, in which he intended to transfer him to a semiconductor company in the mainland China.
In 2023, ASMLWhich makes machines that are necessary for the manufacture of the most advanced chips, said that it was revealed that there was a former employee in China Misappropriate data Related to your proprietary technique.
