Intel CEO Tan Lip-Bu denies claims new hire stole TSMC trade secrets

[SAN FRANCISCO] Intel chief executive officer Tan Lip-Bu dismissed reports about a new hire taking trade secrets from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to his company, saying the US chipmaker respects other firms’ intellectual property.

Taiwanese newspapers spent the week reporting on the transition of Lo Wen-jen, 75, from his retirement from TSMC earlier this year to joining Intel in recent weeks. The executive is alleged to have taken proprietary knowhow from his former employer just before his departure.

“It’s rumour 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 (Nov 20). The event recognised TSMC CEO CC Wei and former chairman Mark Liu with its highest honour, 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 the self-governing island.

Local prosecutors have started looking into the reports to see whether any person broke any law, Taiwan 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, according to a person familiar with the matter. It is unclear whether TSMC has reached a conclusion about any potential damage to the company, the person added, asking not to be identified since 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 at TSMC of cutting-edge chips, including those used to make AI accelerators. He is also a laureate of Taiwan’s prestigious 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 UC Berkeley.

“The government is concerned with national security implications,” Taiwan’s Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin told reporters on Wednesday, without elaborating on any of the details pertaining to allegations against Lo.

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Minister Wu Cheng-wen of Taiwan’s National Science and Technology Council told reporters later in the day that TSMC is still looking into the situation, according to Taiwan’s official Central News Agency.

TSMC did not comment on the matter. Lo could not be reached for comment.

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 and Nvidia. BLOOMBERG