An attempt to steal trade secrets from the world’s largest chipmaker and renewed tariff threats on semiconductors is bending Taiwan’s "silicon shield.” But it’s not breaking just yet.
Still, heavy is the head of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., whose technology everybody wants a piece of. Less than a day after news broke that TSMC fired several employees for a suspected attempt to obtain critical information on its cutting-edge manufacturing, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened new chip tariffs "of approximately 100%.”
On Thursday, Taiwan confirmed that TSMC is exempt from the latest levies due to its investments in the U.S. But the president still sowed a lot of confusion after stating in a recent interview that Taiwan was "coming over and spending $300 billion in Arizona, building the biggest plant in the world.” TSMC had previously only committed $165 billion, suggesting negotiations might not be over.
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