Huawei and other Chinese companies are offering triple the salaries to poach TSMC workers

It has been reported that Chinese companies such as Huawei and SMIC are asking TSMC employees to transfer to them in order to strengthen their semiconductor development capabilities. In fact, a former TSMC employee testified that Huawei offered him 'three times the salary of TSMC' and was persistently soliciting him to join.

Entre Taïwan et la Chine, la guerre des puces est une bataille des talents
https://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2024/11/01/entre-taiwan-et-la-chine-la-guerre-des-puces-est-une-bataille-des-talents_6369864_3234.html

Huawei trying to poach TSMC employees with 3X salary | Tom's Hardware
https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/huawei-trying-to-poach-tsmc-employees-with-3x-salary

Due to the US semiconductor export restrictions, it has become difficult for China to obtain high-performance semiconductors. In response to this situation, China is continuing to make efforts to domestically produce high-performance semiconductors. For example, it has been reported that Huawei is building a research organization by recruiting employees from TSMC, the world's largest semiconductor manufacturer, and ASML, a manufacturer of manufacturing equipment for high-performance semiconductors.

Huawei is building a vast chip equipment R&D center in Shanghai, China, hiring many engineers who already worked at ASML, TSMC, etc. - GIGAZINE

by Web Summit

According to a report from Le Monde, Huawei has contacted TSMC researchers through a recruitment agency to ask them to transfer to Huawei, and is offering them a salary that is three times higher than what they were receiving at TSMC.

TSMC divides the information accessible to employees to maintain confidentiality, so that information is not concentrated in each individual. For this reason, in order to imitate TSMC's technology, it is necessary to poach multiple employees. According to Le Monde, in order to avoid investigations by the Taiwanese investigation bureau, Huawei is conducting recruitment activities under the guise of a 'data analysis company'. Chloe Chen, a former researcher at TSMC, testified that 'I still receive emails about once every three months asking me to transfer to Huawei.'

Tom's Hardware, an overseas media outlet, points out that 'hiring people with work experience at semiconductor manufacturing companies is one way to promote research and development in China, which is under the influence of export restrictions. For this reason, companies such as Huawei, SMIC, CXMT, and QXIC are offering large compensation to poach employees from TSMC and UMC.'

Regarding Huawei and TSMC, it has been reported that ' TSMC-made semiconductors were found in AI processing chips sold by Huawei .' It is unclear how the semiconductors subject to export controls ended up in Huawei's hands, but TSMC stopped shipping products to the Chinese company SOPHGO immediately after the problem was discovered, and it has been pointed out that SOPHGO may have been involved in the transaction as an intermediary.

Immediately after it was reported that TSMC's semiconductors were used in Huawei's AI chips, TSMC stopped shipments to the Chinese company SOPHGO, and it is possible that SOPHGO was acting as an intermediary to make semiconductors - GIGAZINE