Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSM) says it has discovered potential trade secret leaks among its staff.
The world’s largest manufacturer of high-end microchips and semiconductors says it has taken disciplinary action against the people involved in the information leak as well as legal action.
News of a potential violation comes as semiconductors have grown in strategic importance amid a boom in artificial intelligence (A.I.) models.
TSMC, which is based in Taiwan, manufactures about three-quarters (75%) of the world’s most advanced microchips for companies such as Apple (AAPL) and Nvidia (NVDA).
So far, TSMC has not provided further details on the trade secret leak, other than to say it
identified the issue early and carried out an internal investigation into the matter.
However, media reports claim that several former employees of TSMC are suspected of attempting to obtain proprietary information on two-nanometer chip development.
Design and production of the two-nanometer chip is among the leading-edge manufacturing processes in the semiconductor industry today.
TSMC has said in the past that it has more than 200,000 trade secrets recorded in its internal systems.
This is not the first time that TSMC has been the target of internal theft.
In 2018, a Taiwanese court indicted a former employee for copying trade secretes related to the 28-nanometer fabrication process with the intention of transferring the information to China.
TSM stock is up 19% this year and trading at $239 U.S. per share.
