Taiwan's TSMC, which is the world's largest contract chipmaker and a major Apple Inc supplier, has put out an official statement saying that it will not leak sensitive data. The statement was put out in accordance with a US request for greater transparency in the supply chain. Although the company's statement shows its willingness to protect its clients and customers, there's no mention to what degree they would agree to such a compliance request.
TSMC lawyer Sylvia Fang, in a statement to Reuters, said:
"Don't worry. We definitely will not leak our company's sensitive information, especially that related to customers. Customer trust is one of the key elements to our company's success. If this is to resolve supply chain issues, we will see how best we can do to help them."
Last month, the White House had made a request to automakers, chip manufacturing companies, and others to provide information on the ongoing semiconductor crisis that has forced a surge in price for existing chips, while cutting US auto production. The request was made to Detroit's Big Three automakers, Apple, Daimler, BMW, GlobalFoundaries, Micron, Microsoft, Samsung, TSMC, Intel, and Ampere Computing.
Recently, information about the iPhone 14 was leaked even before the iPhone 13 was released. Leaks like these have made Tim Cook put out an internal memo saying "people who leak confidential information do not belong [at Apple]", which was ironically leaked itself. Moreover, chipmakers like TSMC know well in advance what Apple and other companies are planning, which allows the scope of potential harm in the form of leaks to the respective companies.
Both the TSMC and the Taiwan Government have repeatedly said that they are doing everything they can to resolve the chip shortage. In addition to that, TSMC has also pledged to spend $100 billion over the next three years to expand chip capacity amid the global shortage.
Regardless of that, Taiwan's government has also said that although they respect US commercial law and rules, they will back up the Taiwanese companies if they receive any "unreasonable requests."
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