TSMC secrets put the Japan electron in Tokyo on the hot seat

Among the six people who were arrested by the Taiwanese prosecutors on charges of stealing commercial secrets from the largest contract maker in the world, was the former employee of Tokyo Electron Ltd. Now, the Japanese company – one of the largest suppliers of tools in the world – is struggling to address the possibility with one of the most important clients and materials of government in TOKYO and Taip.

Tokyo electron He said He launched an employee of the Taipei unit on the issue and cooperates with the ongoing investigation. Her shares have regained some weekly losses on Friday, but they remain more than 4 % since the TSMC news appeared.

Taiwan creates the most advanced semiconductors in the world and its companies were regularly Targeted For their intellectual ownership by relationships with relationships with China, which are pushing hard to develop their own capabilities. Tokyo Electron’s arrest raises questions about the reason for the participation of its employee in such an endeavor, whether it will have any motivation to steal TSMC commercial secrets and whether the issue is linking the heroic Japan to build a local chips industry.

“The fact that the Tokyo Electron was shown in this way, it seems to be an unfortunate accident,” said Atsushi Osanai, a professor at the University and Wasada.

On Wednesday morning, at the team’s meetings throughout the organization, instructions were instructed to the Tokyo Electron employees to refrain from talking about the matter, as people familiar with this matter said, asking his name and not describing private information. One person said that the managers of the companies flew to Taiwan to deal with what followed it.

So far, the company has not found evidence of the participation of commercial secrets with third parties, Tokyo Electron said. He said he was unable to provide further details about the case under the judicial review.

Taiwanese prosecutors did not reveal many details about their investigations and did not specify those who believed that he was behind the six people who were arrested.

Besides Applied Mateials Inc. And Lam Research Corp. Tokyo Electron plays a prominent but decisive support role in world makers including TSMC and Samsung Electronics Co. And Intel Corp. , Which makes the machines that package, process and clean the clean silicone to create connectors.

The veterans of the chips industry say they see no clear reason for the involvement of Tokyo Electron in a work of intellectual property theft and they risk its relationship with TSMC and the supplier of Nvidia Corp. And Apple Inc. The world’s largest raid on chips equipment. CEO Tushiki Kaway said that Tokyo Electron is familiar with the technological road maps of its customers for 10 years, and it is necessary to propose and develop the most effective chips tools, and this cooperation helps her to maintain its technological leadership on competitors.

“Tsmc is the most important agent in Tokyo Electron and the central player in the semiconductor industry,” said Osanay. “It is difficult to imagine that the company will risk losing all of this by engaging in any violations.”

Like many Japanese companies, Tokyo Electron has been arrested at the intersection of increasing tensions between its largest trading partners, the United States and China. Nearly 40 % of the sales of the chip tool maker comes from China, but these revenues take the successes of American export restrictions on technology: it cannot sell some of its most advanced equipment in China, and Beijing is now spent billions of dollars to encourage the growth of the cultivated equipment makers at home.

The controversy also comes at a low point for Tokyo Electron. Last week, its shares decreased by 18 % after canceling the expected requests, as well as a calmness in the Chinese demand for the Tokyo -based company to reduce its profit expectations.