Chinese companies such as Huawei are trying to poach TSMC employees with triple the salary – GIGAZINE
BY Vasundhara Mali
November 6, 2024
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It has been reported that Chinese companies such as Huawei and SMIC are approaching TSMC employees for transfers in order to strengthen their semiconductor development capabilities. In fact, a former TSMC employee testified that Huawei offered him a salary “three times that of TSMC,” and that he was persistently solicited.
Due to the United States’ semiconductor export regulations, it is difficult to obtain high-performance semiconductors in China. In response to this situation, China continues to make efforts to domestically produce high-performance semiconductors. For example, it has been reported that Huawei is building a research system by poaching employees from TSMC, the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturing company, and ASML, a manufacturer of high-performance semiconductor manufacturing equipment.
According to a report from overseas media Le Monde, Huawei has contacted TSMC researchers through a recruitment company and asked them to transfer to Huawei. At this time, Huawei seems to be offering a salary that is approximately three times as much as when he was at TSMC.
To maintain confidentiality, TSMC divides the information that employees can access into smaller pieces to prevent information from being concentrated on individual individuals. Therefore, in order to imitate TSMC’s technology, it is necessary to recruit multiple employees. According to Le Monde, Huawei is conducting recruitment activities under the guise of a “data analysis company” in order to evade investigation by Taiwan’s Bureau of Investigation. Chloe Chen, a former researcher at TSMC, testified that “Even now, I receive an email asking me to transfer to Huawei about once every three months.”
Foreign media Tom’s Hardware says, “Hiring people with work experience at semiconductor manufacturing companies is one way to promote research and development in China, which is affected by export restrictions.For this reason, Huawei and SMIC , CXMT, and QXIC are trying to lure TSMC and UMC employees by offering them large compensations.”
Regarding Huawei and TSMC,TSMC semiconductors were found in AI processing chips sold by Huawei” is reported. It is unclear how semiconductors subject to export restrictions ended up in the hands of Huawei, but TSMC suspended product shipments to the Chinese company “SOPHGO” immediately after the problem was discovered, and SOPHGO acted as an intermediary in the transaction. It has been suggested that he may have been involved.
Immediately after the report that “TSMC’s semiconductors were being used in Huawei’s AI chips”, TSMC stopped shipping to the Chinese company “SOPHGO”, raising the possibility that SOPHGO was intermediating to make semiconductors – GIGAZINE
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