The Taiwan High Prosecutors Office Intellectual Property Branch yesterday indicted three individuals and Tokyo Electron Taiwan Ltd for stealing Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) 14-nanometer (14nm) technology secrets.
The individuals included Chen Li-ming (陳力銘), a former TSMC engineer who worked at Tokyo Electron Taiwan, a TSMC employee surnamed Chen (陳), and a Tokyo Electron Taiwan employee surnamed Lu (盧), the prosecutors office said in a statement.
The first two were charged with reproducing trade secrets relating to national core key technologies under the National Security Act (國家安全法), while Lu and Tokyo Electron Taiwan were charged with destroying evidence in a criminal case, the statement said.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
The case came to light when prosecutors were investigating Tokyo Electron Taiwan for the alleged theft of TSMC trade secrets related to its 2nm process. During the investigation, it was discovered that the company’s cloud storage contained additional trade secrets linked to TSMC’s 14-nanometer technology, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said Chen Li-ming confessed after being presented with evidence and identified an accomplice, also surnamed Chen, who has yet to admit guilt. They are seeking prison sentences of seven years and eight years and eight months, respectively, for the two defendants.
Prosecutors added that Lu attempted to delete evidence after learning that TSMC had uncovered Chen Li-ming’s actions and has continued to deny any wrongdoing. They are seeking a one-year prison sentence for Lu.
Prosecutors are also seeking a NT$25 million (US $794,356) fine against Tokyo Electron Taiwan, while also noting that the company cooperated with the investigation, which aided the case.
Chen Li-ming, along with two others, were indicted in August last year for stealing TSMC’s 2nm technology. The three are currently being detained.
Tokyo Electron Taiwan was indicted last month on four violations of the Trade Secrets Act (營業秘密法) and National Security Act for failing to properly supervise Chen Li-ming, with prosecutors seeking a total penalty of NT$120 million.
Taiwanese firms have increased investment in the Philippines in recent years as Manila’s ties with Washington deepen and global supply chains continue to shift away from China, an expert at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The Philippines had not been among Taiwanese investors’ top choices in Southeast Asia, CIER Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center director Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈) said at a seminar in Taipei. However, Taiwan’s investment in the country has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching US $257 million last year, a high in recent years, she said. Although Taiwan’s total investment in the Philippines still lags
Intel Corp regards Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) as a longstanding partner, as the US chipmaker would continue outsourcing production of advanced chips to TSMC, Intel chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) said yesterday. “I don’t look at people as competitors. I look at the collaboration... Nvidia is also, you know, a good friend,” Tan told a news conference following his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei. “It’s a very trusted partnership for us... We are a big, top customer for them, and we’re going to continue doing that,” he said, referring to TSMC, the world’s largest foundry
Artificial intelligence (AI) agents would supplant smartphones as the center of people’s digital lives, fundamentally reshaping personal devices and driving a major computing upgrade cycle, Qualcomm Inc CEO Cristiano Amon said yesterday. In his keynote speech for this year’s Computex trade show in Taipei, Amon said that the rise of "agentic AI" — AI systems capable of reasoning, planning and carrying out tasks autonomously — would transform how people interact with technology across phones, PCs, vehicles and wearable devices. Describing the technology as the next major evolution in computing, Amon said that "2026 is the year of agents.” For decades, smartphones have sat
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said it would work with US chipmaker Intel Corp to jointly develop and deploy next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and intelligent computing platforms in a move to capture booming demand for AI computing systems. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), said in a statement that the partnership would combine its global manufacturing scale, system integration expertise and AI data center deployment capabilities with Intel’s strengths in processor architecture, silicon technologies and software ecosystem. The companies said they plan to work on equipment used in AI data centers, including server racks powered by
RSS