TSMC Formally Sues Ex-SVP Over Alleged Transfer of Trade Secrets to Intel

The big semiconductor news this week is the legal action TSMC is taking against former Senior Vice President Wei-Jen Lo. This looks to be a serious game of 3D chess between CC Wei and Lip-Bu Tan so it is worth a look. I got this notice in my inbox early Tuesday morning:

Immediately following, there was an interesting discussion on SemiWiki. Since this story is still unfolding I thought it would be worth while to take a closer look and share perspectives.

Wei-Jen Lo immigrated to the US from Taiwan and earned his PhD in Solid State Physics & Surface Chemistry from U.C. Berkeley in 1979.  He joined TSMC in 2004 after 18 years at Intel in positions including Director of Technology Development and as a Factory Manager running a development facility in Santa Clara, CA.

Joining TSMC after Intel was not uncommon back then. Intel and TSMC did not compete directly and that is how Silicon Valley worked. We changed jobs in pursuit of equity so Wei-Jen Lo only working for two different companies in 40 years is quite remarkable. It also goes to the depth of knowledge he had at both companies.

Here is the TSMC hiring announcement from 2004:

Approved the appointment of Dr. Wei-Jen Lo as Vice President of TSMC Operations II. Both Dr. Wei-Jen Lo and Dr. Mark Liu, who is also a Vice President of TSMC Operations II, report directly to Dr. Rick Tsai, President and Chief Operating Officer for TSMC. Dr. Wei-Jen Lo recently joined TSMC from Intel Corporation where he held various positions in technology development and management. Prior to joining Intel, Dr. Lo served in the IT and semiconductor industries, and he also held teaching and research position in the university in the US.

TSMC and many other semiconductor companies have hired former Intel employees. In fact, you will be hard pressed to find a company that did not have Intel experience inside so this is nothing new. In fact, Dr. Mark Liu also worked for Intel prior to joining TSMC and later became CEO and Chairman of the Board.

The problem as I see it is two-fold:

Wei-Jen Lo told TSMC he was retiring which provided a completely different exit than if he had said he would go to work for a competitor. For example, it was reported that Wei-Jen Lo was allowed to take 20 boxes of hand written notes he had complied over the last 20 years while working at TSMC. That would not have happened if it was known that he was going to work for Intel.

The second problem is that Intel did not publicly announce Wei-Jen Lo’s arrival  which is normally done for the executive staff. This supports the argument of deception. Wei-Jen is said to be a Senior VP at Intel reporting directly to Lip-Bu Tan. He will work in Intel’s manufacturing group and its packaging business which directly competes with TSMC.

On Wednesday morning Lip-Bu Tan sent a message to Intel employees defending the hiring:

“Based on everything we know today, we see no merit to the allegations involving Wei-Jen, and he continues to have our full support. Intel has welcomed back Wei-Jen Lo, who previously spent 18 years at Intel working on the development of Intel’s wafer processing technology before joining TSMC, where he continued his work in their wafer processing technology development.”

On Thursday it was reported that Taiwan prosecutors had raided the homes of the former senior TSMC executive and seized computers after the company accused him of leaking trade secrets. This is both a criminal and civil investigation.

This big question is why?

Wei-Jen Lo is 75 years old and has had a remarkable career working for two semiconductor giants that changed the world. His legacy is one semiconductor professionals like myself honor greatly. Wei-Jen has also worked for some of the most decorated people in the semiconductor industry including Andy Grove, Craig Barrett, Morris Chang, and CC Wei.

Additionally, Wei-Jin Lo owns significant TSMC stock. I found a source that said as of February 28, 2025, Lo held 1,282,328 shares, valued at about US$63 million. Could that be true? And now he risks losing it as a result of a lawsuit? Not to mention the shame of betraying Taiwan’s most valued company? Seriously, why would he do this?

Bottom Line: Hopefully this story has a happy ending. TSMC is still an important supplier to Intel and this will be yet another test of leadership for Lip-Bu Tan. Lip-Bu needs to get in front of this situation before it does irreparable harm to Intel, absolutely.

Also Read:

TSMC Kumamoto: Pioneering Japan’s Semiconductor Revival

Exploring TSMC’s OIP Ecosystem Benefits

TSMC’s Push for Energy-Efficient AI: Innovations in Logic and Packaging