Taiwanese authorities have opened a national-security-related inquiry involving a former TSMC R&D executive who may have passed the company's trade secrets to a foreign company. The person in question is Wei-Jen Lo, according to a spokesperson for the High Prosecutors Office, who spoke to Nikkei Asia. Yet, for now the investigation is focused on finding out whether there was an intentional or unlawful transfer of TSMC's trade secrets to a foreign entity.
Wei-Jen Lo, a long-time executive at TSMC and Intel, this year retired from the Taiwanese foundry giant after spending 21 years at the company and building one of the strongest semiconductor R&D teams in the industry. However, instead of enjoying life, he unexpectedly surfaced at Intel in late October. Furthermore, he allegedly took a large collection of confidential materials related to TSMC's leading-edge process technologies with him, reports Liberty Times. Keep in mind that we are dealing with unofficial information, and both Intel and TSMC have declined to comment on the matter.
