A Taiwanese examination of the possible theft of chip technology at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. sets a low-known, less well-known tech bent and focal point under unusual control.
Among the six people arrested by Taiwanese public prosecutors who allegedly stolen business secrets of the world’s largest contract chipmaker, a former employee at Tokyo Electron Ltd., the Japanese company -was one of the largest suppliers in the world of the world’s largest providers of chipmaking tools -are with one of the most important customers and with governments In the governments in the areas of Taipei and Taipei.
Tokyo Electron said that it released an employee in his Taipei unit in connection with the case and works with the ongoing examination. The shares reproduced some of the losses of the week on Friday, but have remained more than 4% since the TSMC messages were created.
Taiwan makes the most advanced semiconductors in the world and his companies were regular targeted For their intellectual property by companies with connections to China, which is difficult to develop its own chip skills. The Tokyo Electron detention raises questions about why his employee would be involved in such an endeavor whether it would be motivated to steal TSMC business secrets and whether the case is connected to Japan’s own ambitions for building a domestic chip industry.
“The fact that Tokyo Electron has moved into the spotlight in this way feels like an unfortunate accident,” said Atsushi Osanai, professor at Waseda University.
On Wednesday morning, team meetings around the Tokyo Electron employee organization were instructed to talk about the matter, said the people familiar with the matter and asked not to be mentioned in order to describe private information. Company managers flew to Taiwan to deal with the consequences, one person said.
So far, the company has not found any evidence that business secrets have been shared to third parties, said Tokyo Electron. It is said that no further details can be given for a case under judicial review.
The Taiwanese prosecutors have not announced many details of their investigations and did not determine who was behind the six people arrested.
In addition to Applied Materials Inc. and Lam Research Corp. plays Tokyo Electron for the global chip makers such as TSMC, Samsung Electronics Co. and Intel Corp. A low -profile but crucial role.
The veterans of the chip industry say that they cannot see a clear reason for Tokyo Electron to participate in an act of theft for intellectual property and his relationship with TSMC, the supplier of Nvidia Corp. and to risk Apple Inc. and the world’s largest donor for chipmaking devices. Tokyo Electron is brought to safety with the 10-year technological road maps of its customers to better suggest and develop the most effective chip equipment, and this cooperation helps him to maintain their technological lead over the rival.
“TSMC is the most important customer of Tokyo Electron and the central player in the semiconductor industry,” said Osanai. “It is hard to imagine that the company would be at risk of losing all of this by getting into misconduct.”
Like a large part of the Japan company, Tokyo Electron was caught in the crosshairs of growing tensions between the two largest trading partners, the USA and China. About 40% of the CHIP Tool Makers’ turnover come from China, but that sales from the US export brothers for technology will score: It cannot sell some of its most advanced devices in China, and Beijing now spends billions of dollars to promote the growth of chip equipment manufacturers.
The controversy also comes to a low point for Tokyo Electron. Last week, the shares of expected orders fell by 18%after cancellation of expected orders together with a break in Chinese demand.
