Taiwan probes China chipmaker SMIC for allegedly poaching staff

Taiwan is investigating whether China’s leading chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) illegally poached local engineers as part of an effort to access the island’s cutting-edge chip technology.

SMIC set up a branch in Taiwan posing as a Samoa-based company and tried to hire local talent, prosecutors from Taiwan’s Investigation Bureau said Friday in a statement.

Local investigators raided 34 locations and conducted 90 interrogations this month as part of a large-scale probe into 11 Chinese tech companies including SMIC, according to the bureau, which is part of the justice ministry. A SMIC representative did not respond to requests for comment.

SMIC rose to global fame in 2023 when it worked with Huawei Technologies to produce an advanced 7-nanometere chip despite facing a myriad of US-led curbs that continue to prevent China from securing the most advanced chipmaking equipment. However, the two companies now have hit a snag with technology development as they cannot secure ASML Holding’s extreme ultraviolet lithography systems required to make the most cutting-edge chips.

As China faces growing restrictions on its access to advanced foreign technologies, it has aggressively tried to obtain know-how in cutting-edge segments including semiconductors by ramping up efforts to recruit engineers from Taiwan and elsewhere.