Taiwanese foundry TSMC believes a former executive has leaked company secrets to Intel and is testing the matter in court.
The exec is Wei-Jen Lo who, according to a TSMC regulatory filing, joined the company in 2004, rose to become a senior vice-president in 2014. In 2024 he took a job in the company’s Corporate Strategy Development team that saw him required to provide counsel to chairman and CEO Dr. C.C. Wei.
TSMC’s filing alleges that in that role Lo met with R&D staff, despite the job not involving oversight of their teams, and sought information about “the advanced technologies currently, and planned to be, under development by TSMC.”
Lo retired from TSMC last July, and in his exit interview said he planned to join an academic institution. TSMC says the exit interview also saw its general counsel remind Lo of the non-disclosure agreement and non-compete agreement he had previously signed.
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Imagine TSMC’s surprise, then, when he joined Intel.
Intel can certainly use people with knowledge of TSMC’s foundry practices, because the Taiwanese company’s manufacturing processes are acknowledged as the only ones capable of making the world’s most advanced semiconductors.
TSMC’s prowess even exceeds Intel’s: The American company therefore hired TSMC to make some chips, a departure from its decades-old practice of designing and building its own products.
Intel is now trying to create a foundry business to compete with TSMC.
TSMC’s filing therefore concludes “There is a high probability that Lo uses, leaks, discloses, delivers, or transfers TSMC’s trade secrets and confidential information to Intel.”
Intel has said TSMC’s claims are meritless, that people moving between semiconductor companies has helped to drive innovation, and that it is confident it can act with integrity.
TSMC chose Taiwan’s Intellectual Property and Commercial Court to fight this matter and mentioned the nation’s Trade Secrets Act as pertinent to the case. That’s an interesting gambit, as Taiwanese prosecutors have used it to pursue Chinese nationals suspected of stealing local tech for use on the mainland. ®
