MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS OVER LEAK
Still, tariffs may not be the company’s biggest headache. The potential corporate espionage is far more than a run-of-the-mill commercial intellectual property theft. It’s being investigated under Taiwan’s national security law and has the potential to spiral into a broader geopolitical spat.
At this stage, there are more questions than answers. The scope of the leak, the perpetrator and the motive haven’t been disclosed. Still, TSMC has said it was able to identify the issue “early”.
On Thursday, Tokyo Electron confirmed that a former employee was involved in the case, though said an internal probe hadn’t found evidence of the confidential information being shared with a third party.
Local prosecutors have made half a dozen arrests, and the people involved were reportedly targeting information on the company’s 2-nanometer production – the most advanced chip manufacturing technology in the world.
Besides TSMC, there are only three other companies that are actively trying to mass produce the cutting-edge chips: Samsung, Intel and Japan’s long-shot startup Rapidus. Many of them rely on the same suppliers, such as Tokyo Electron.
Acquiring the critical know-how for smaller chip node production can cost tens of billions of dollars in research and development. There are other reasons so few firms are capable of attempting this. Even with the R&D knowledge, it still requires massive investments in fabrication plants and tooling equipment, as well as access to a very limited supply of trained engineers to compete at scale.
Taiwan and TSMC have spent decades building this foundation, and there aren’t clear shortcuts to leapfrog the company’s dominance – even unethical ones. Countries and companies have poured billions trying to eclipse TSMC’s virtual monopoly on advanced chipmaking, but these hard-won gains can’t be spread (or stolen) overnight.
The firm is also no stranger to talent poaching and other attempts at IP theft; it’s a systemic issue in an industry where the strategic importance is so high. The most recent case is spurring international whodunnit intrigue, but more importantly it shows that the company has beefed up internal security protocols to rapidly respond.
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