On Wednesday, 3 April, the strongest earthquake to strike Taiwan in 25 years killed at least nine people and injured or trapped hundreds more. The 7.4 magnitude quake was followed by more than 200 aftershocks, dozens of which were at least 6.5 magnitude or stronger.
Taiwan, which frequently experiences earthquakes due to its position on the Pacific Ring of Fire, produces 80-90% of high-end chips for advanced applications like smartphones and AI. Although the epicenter of the huge quake was on the eastern side of Taiwan, in Hualien County, it was strong enough to be felt in the capital Taipei about 90 miles south. This led to TSMC, the main contract chipmaker for Apple, Nvidia and AMD, evacuating workers and suspending operations.
