Tokyo Electron fires employee suspected of stealing TSMC tech

Japanese chip gear maker Tokyo Electron said it has fired an employee at its Taipei unit and is cooperating with an ongoing investigation after Taiwanese authorities arrested six people suspected of stealing trade secrets from chipmaking giant TSMC, according to a report by Bloomberg.

The six people arrested on allegations of intellectual property theft at the Taiwanese chipmaker include a person identified by local media reports as a former employee of Tokyo Electron. The leaked information was reportedly related to TSMC’s most advanced 2-nanometer chip technology.

Tokyo Electron supplies semiconductor-fabrication tools and gear to TSMC. 

The former employee met an acquaintance, an engineer at TSMC, at a cafe, asked the engineer to display confidential data on a laptop and took numerous photos of the information, according to Japanese website Nippon.com, which cited a report by Taiwanese newspaper United Daily News.  

“We have confirmed that a former employee of Tokyo Electron Taiwan Ltd., our subsidiary in Taiwan, was involved in the case issued by the Intellectual Property Branch of the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office as of August 5, 2025. At Tokyo Electron, we are unwavering in our commitment to the highest standards of legal compliance and ethical conduct,” Tokyo Electron said in a statement. “We maintain zero-tolerance policy toward any behaviors against those. We have taken strict disciplinary action and dismissed the personnel involved who worked at Taiwan subsidiary and been fully committed to cooperating with the Authorities for the investigation.”

The Japanese company added that as of now, it had not unearthed any evidence of confidential information shared to third parties.