Taiwan raids firms accused of stealing chip industry secrets
TAIPEI : Taiwanese investigators said today they have raided 16 Chinese-funded companies suspected of illegally poaching high-tech talent to steal secrets from the island's chip industry.
Taiwan is a global powerhouse in semiconductor manufacturing, with more than half of the world's chips and nearly all of the high-end ones made there.
China is racing to develop the advanced chips used to power artificial intelligence systems, as it faces export restrictions imposed by the US.
Hundreds of officials searched 70 locations across the island and questioned 120 people from July 15 to Aug 6, the justice ministry's investigation bureau said.
The probe is still underway and no charges have been filed, a bureau investigator surnamed Gu told AFP, adding there were 'around 25 to 30' such investigations every year.
Intelligence shared by the bureau indicated 'several illegal mainland-funded enterprises have been stealing Taiwan's high-tech secrets through illegal poaching', said the Hsinchu District Prosecutors Office, which was involved in the raids.
'The companies targeted had 'used diverse and highly harmful infiltration methods',' it said.
Among the firms searched were Goertek, a major Apple supplier, and US-listed VNET Group.
Taiwan has long accused China of carrying out espionage activities on the island, which Beijing claims is part of its territory and has threatened to seize by force.
Taiwan put Chinese tech giant Huawei and chip titan SMIC on an export blacklist this year, further squeezing Beijing's access to the technology needed to build the most advanced chips.
Local companies wanting to ship high-tech products to Huawei, SMIC or any other entity on the list will have to obtain permission from Taiwan's government.
The investigation bureau said in March that SMIC and other Chinese companies were being probed on suspicion of illegal talent poaching.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Malay Mail
an hour ago
- Malay Mail
China said to urge firms to shun Nvidia H20 chips tied to security risks, Bloomberg News reports
LONDON, Aug 12 — Chinese authorities have urged local companies to avoid using Nvidia's H20 processors, particularly for government-related purposes, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Authorities have sent notices to a range of firms discouraging use of the less-advanced semiconductors, with the guidance taking a particularly strong stance against the use of Nvidia's H20s for any government or national security-related work by state enterprises or private companies, the report said. Reuters could not immediately confirm the report. Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours. Nvidia said in July that its products have no 'backdoors' that would allow remote access or control after China raised concerns over potential security risks in the chipmaker's H20 artificial intelligence chip. US President Donald Trump suggested on Monday that he might allow Nvidia to sell a scaled-down version of its next-generation advanced GPU chip, Blackwell, in China, despite deep-seated fears in Washington that China could harness US AI capabilities to supercharge its military. The most advanced chip Nvidia is currently allowed to sell to China is the H20, which is based off the company's older Hopper architecture platform. The Trump administration green-lighted exports of H20 AI to China last month. The Trump administration last week also confirmed an unprecedented deal with Nvidia and AMD to give the US government 15 per cent of revenue from sales of some advanced chips in China. China's renewed guidance on avoiding chips also impacts AI accelerators from Advanced Micro Devices, the Bloomberg report said, adding that it was unclear whether any notices from Chinese authorities specifically mentioned AMD's MI308 chip. AMD did not respond to a request for comment outside regular business. — Reuters
The Star
2 hours ago
- The Star
Musk accuses Apple of unfairly favouring OpenAI among iPhone apps
Musk added that xAI will take legal action against what he deemed an antitrust violation. — Photo by on Unsplash Elon Musk lashed out against Apple Inc.'s app store practices late on Monday, accusing the iPhone maker of favoring OpenAI. The billionaire founder of xAI Holdings, which now houses the Grok artificial intelligence team and X social network, said Apple makes it impossible for anyone other than OpenAI to reach the top of the App Store charts, a sought-after global spotlight for app developers. In a pinned post on his X account, Musk asked if Apple is "playing politics' by not highlighting his products. His comments mark the biggest fight that Musk has picked since his confrontation with US President Donald Trump in June, when each man posted disparaging remarks about the other on his own social network. Apple and OpenAI representatives didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. Musk added that xAI will take legal action against what he deemed an antitrust violation. Apple and OpenAI – whose ChatGPT is the most-downloaded free iPhone app in the US, ahead of Grok at No. 5 – have a partnership around AI built into the latest iPhones. Musk, 54, has a long-running feud with OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman, which dates back to disagreements that led to their split after the two founded OpenAI together. – Bloomberg
Malay Mail
2 hours ago
- Malay Mail
US extension of its truce on tariffs is just kicking the can further down the road — Phar Kim Beng
AUG 12 — Donald Trump's latest move to extend the 90-day pause on punitive tariffs with China until November 9, 2025, is less a triumph of diplomacy than a tactical delay — a familiar act of kicking the can down the road. Come November 9 2025 there is no certainty that US would act any differently from now since Christmas and New Year would be around the corner. It would be officially one year away from the mid term of American Congress in 2026. Should prices should up in 2025, they can't come down in 2026 to give the Trump Administration the necessary electoral advantage. What's happening in US trade tactics now demonstrate the weak hand that Trump possesses. Although in the larger scheme of things, given the anaemic growth of Chinese economy, the US does feel it is more superior. By kicking the can down the road, delays become a way to test the extent to which China can withstand even more uncertainty in the months ahead. The reality is that markets may breathe easier for now, avoiding the immediate shock of triple-digit tariffs — up to 145 per cent from the US and 125 per cent from China. Research from Goldman Sachs has shown that up to June 2025, all the tariffs imposed by Trump have been absorbed by 22 percent of the American consumers. If deeper trade war begins to unfold, up to 67 percent of the American consumers would have to absorb the cost of pricier goods. Yet the fundamental tensions between US and China remain unchanged. Both refuse to budge but to keep talking. This is not the architecture of a durable peace in trade relations; it is the scaffolding of temporary political theatre. With or without Trump in future, trade wars will always befuddle Sino US relationship not unlike the tech war. Since what offends Washington DC is China's perennial trade surplus against the US. The timing of extending the truce, however, is far from coincidental. The extension spares American consumers from a potential price shock ahead of the holiday shopping season in between August and November 2025 too. Electronics, toys, and clothing will still be expensive, but the narrative of 'stability' can be sold and re-told; even though any form of trade wars are usually ruinous on both and all sides. In the short term, Trump's extension is a neat political maneuver. In the long term, it is strategic drift disguised as progress. Since this is the third time that Trump has extended the truce. While Trump's extension can test the patience of China, it can also reveal the inability of US to execute a full decoupling from China. If anything, the two may well have to concede on the need to recouple. For now, Trump is taking his usual hardline on trade. For one, by demanding that China quadruple its soybean purchases. This move exemplifies the problem: headline-friendly but strategically shallow since Trump cannot come around to admit that American economy is addicted to imports not from China but many parts of the world. An extension on the truce does nothing to address structural imbalances, safeguard technological competition, or resolve disputes over market access. Instead, it sets the stage for further brinkmanship when the next deadline approaches — whether in 90 days or 900. When prolonged, the game Trump plays will be akin to the politics of muddling through; even though time and again he will insist that he has not detracted from Making American Great Again. Even more worrying is the precedent of monetizing export rights, with US tech giants such as Nvidia and AMD reportedly paying 15 per cent of their China revenues just to keep selling in the Chinese market. Trump has turned to extorting from American firms. Such measures are not a sign of strategic clarity; they are a tax on global interdependence, one that risks cascading into other sectors and allies. For Southeast Asia, and Asean in particular, this prolonged uncertainty is more than a background hum — it reverberates across supply chains, commodity prices, and regional investment climates. Trump likes international trade, in other words, only when everything goes his way. Asean can comprehend this logic. But Asean would have to consolidate its own markets as well as reaching out to the likes of BRICS. For now the pause may delay turbulence, but it also delays clarity, leaving governments and businesses in a perpetual state of hedge and recalibration. Trump's extension is therefore not a resolution but an intermission. It buys time, not trust; optics, not outcomes. The US appears unwilling to either escalate decisively or negotiate conclusively. Instead, it is content to occupy a grey zone of suspended tension — enough to posture, never enough to settle. Meanwhile, China will grit its teeth and hold out for as long as possible. This is not necessarily difficult for China to do, granted its prior lock down of almost three years during the height of the Covid pandemic. In trade diplomacy, as in geopolitics, momentum matters. By opting for delay over decision, Washington risks squandering whatever leverage it still holds; even though Trump believes he is piling up more pressure on China since China is aging and unable to get out of its lethargic GDP growth to hit at least 5.5 to 6 percent each year. For now, the world watches the calendar, knowing that November may simply bring another performance of the same play — just with a new deadline. * Phar Kim Beng is a professor of Asean Studies and Director of the Institute of Internationalization and Asean Studies at the International Islamic University of Malaysia ** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
