Taiwan arrests three over TSMC's trade secrets theft

TSMC, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company accused one former employee and two working staff members of involvement in top trade best kept secret leaks about chips.

The High Prosecutors Office's Intellectual Property Branch revealed that due to violations of the National Security Act for obtaining the firm's national core technology without permission, forces have detained 3 persons and investigation is undergoing.

The tech giant discovered suspicious activity during routine monitoring in July 2025 after some unusual access to the most private data was detected.

“TSMC maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward any actions that compromise the protection of trade secrets or harm the company’s interests,” said Nina Kao, a spokeswoman for the company.

The under-discussion probe is about this 2nm chip technology which will be used by the top notch mobile manufacturers like Apple, Samsung and tech industry pioneers like Nvidia.

Chipmaker company announced: “As the case is now under judicial review, we are not available to further comment on this matter at this time.”

The Taiwanese company's 2nm chip technology is expected to move into a large-scale production plan in late 2025 and there is a tough time of tariff negotiations between Taiwan and the United States on semiconductor business.

The latest version of the chip can extend the speed to 15 percent or can lower the device power consumption up to 30 percent and It will be used in upcoming smartphones and high-performance computers.