Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) has detected unauthorized activities using “comprehensive and robust monitoring mechanisms”. The chip maker said that it believes trade secrets have been leaked as a result and has taken disciplinary action against the personnel involved and initiated legal proceedings explaining that it has a zero-tolerance policy for compromising trade secrets or harming company interests.
As the case is under judicial review, it is unable to provide further details about the case.
While TSMC is not speaking on the matter, the leak allegedly involves critical proprietary information on 2-nanometer chip development and production. Production of the 2-nanometer chip is among the leading-edge manufacturing processes in the semiconductor industry right now, which explains why an actor would want to steal related information.
TSMC is one of the world’s leading chip makers, with companies like Apple and Nvidia being among its clients. It is also the world’s biggest chip maker and among the most advanced. After this leak, the company has reaffirmed its commitment to safeguarding its core business competitiveness and the shared interests of all its employees.
The jury is still out on the motivations behind the leaking of the trade secrets, but those involved have been fired, according to Nikkei.
TSMC, similarly to Nvidia, has found itself in the geopolitical struggle between China and the US in recent years. As you likely know, the last several years have seen America really go hard after Huawei over national security concerns, and in more recent years, the US has sought to limit China’s access to AI hardware. Earlier this year, Neowin reported that TSMC faces a $1 billion fine for breaching export controls against Huawei.
TSMC had made a chip for the Chinese firm Sophgo, but that same chip was later discovered to be used in Huawei"s high-end Ascend 910B AI processor. This discovery was made by TechInsights, a Canadian company, and as a result, TSMC stopped shipments to Sophgo, and the US added Sophgo to its blacklist to prevent further circumvention along that route.
It will certainly be fascinating to learn more about the motivation for the theft of trade secrets as more information comes to light.
Via: CNBC | Image via Depositphotos.com