Intel Corp CEO Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) dismissed reports about a new hire taking trade secrets from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to his company, saying the US chipmaker respects other firms’ intellectual property (IP).
Taiwanese newspapers spent the week reporting on the transition of Lo Wen-jen (羅唯仁), 75, from his retirement from TSMC earlier this year to joining Intel in recent weeks. The executive is alleged to have taken proprietary know-how from his former employer just before his departure.
“It’s rumor and speculation. There’s nothing to it. We respect IP,” Tan told Bloomberg News on the sidelines of the Semiconductor Industry Association Awards in San Jose on Thursday.
Photo: Reuters
The event recognized TSMC CEO C.C. Wei (魏哲家) and former chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) with its highest honor, the Robert N. Noyce Award.
Now valued at more than US$1.15 trillion, TSMC has become the undisputed global leader in contract chipmaking, surpassing semiconductor pioneer Intel. The company’s proprietary data and fabrication techniques are highly prized trade secrets and a matter of strategic importance for Taiwan.
Local prosecutors have started looking into the reports to see whether any person broke any law, High Prosecutors’ Office spokesman John Nieh told Bloomberg News.
TSMC has opened an internal investigation about whether Lo has taken trade secrets without its consent, a person familiar with the matter said.
It is unclear whether TSMC has reached a conclusion about any potential damage to the company, the person added, asking not to be identified as the information is private.
Lo was responsible for corporate strategy before his retirement from TSMC in July. He was at one point in charge of research and technology development at TSMC, and played a key role in facilitating the mass production of cutting-edge chips, including those used to make artificial intelligence accelerators. He is also a laureate of the Industrial Technology Research Institute.
Before he joined TSMC in 2004, Lo spent some time at Intel focusing on advanced technology development, including running a chip factory in Santa Clara, California. He has a doctorate degree in solid state physics and surface chemistry from the University of California Berkeley.
Relations between Intel and TSMC have been fraught over the past few years, as the US chipmaker tries to play catchup in the technology race. Intel is at once a customer and a competitor to TSMC, which enjoys the enviable position of being the sole maker of the most high-end chips for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp.
Former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger frequently argued that it was too risky for the US to depend heavily on TSMC for cutting-edge semiconductors due to growing geopolitical volatility in the Taiwan Strait, creating friction between the two companies.
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