Lo spent more than two decades at the Taiwanese giant and played a role in its mass production research efforts before retiring in July. His swift reappearance at Chipzilla raised eyebrows and prompted a formal look into whether anything untoward had travelled with him.
Liberty Times revealed that before retiring in July, Lo reportedly used his senior VP authority to have subordinates brief him and copy extensive confidential data covering TSMC’s 2nm, A16, A14, and other next-generation process technologies. At the time, such access appeared routine as few would question a senior VP requesting internal files.
Bloomberg reported that Chipzilla boss Lip Bu Tan tried to swat the whole thing away, saying, “It's a rumour and speculation. There's nothing to it. We respect IP.”
Taiwan’s economy minister Kung Ming hsin chimed in, saying “The Ministry of Economic Affairs will cooperate (with prosecutors) by explaining the current control mechanisms for Taiwan’s core technologies and by assessing whether there are any concerns related to the national security law."
No charges or concrete allegations have surfaced so far, and the matter remains only an investigation.
TSMC is in an awkward spot. It leads the world in advanced process nodes and holds a huge stake in Taiwan’s economy, with the likes of Nvidia and AMD relying on its fabs. Even Chipzilla uses TSMC for some devices while still crafting others in its own plants.
Chipzilla once held the manufacturing crown but lost its stride after a long and painful delay on 10 nm, later rebadged as Intel 7 for reasons no one sane can explain.
Taiwanese officials fret about losing TSMC’s edge because shrinking node sizes boost transistor density and thus performance or efficiency. Any slip here would smack the company’s global standing.
Chipzilla has its own dramas as it gambles big on 18A after rough years that needed fresh US government backing and public cheerleading from firms like Nvidia. Washington remains fixated on shoring up domestic chipmaking and could even take larger chunks of Chipzilla if its manufacturing business wobbles.