TSMC sues former executive over defection to Intel, says it's highly likely he stole trade secrets — chipmaker claims Wei-Jen Lo broke non-disclosure and non-compete agreements

TSMC on Tuesday announced that it had filed a lawsuit against Wei-Jen Lo, the company’s former Senior Vice President, who used to be responsible for the company’s strategy from 2024 all the way to his departure from the company in July 2025. After leaving TSMC, he joined Intel as Executive Vice President, and his former employer has reasons to believe that he illegally shares TSMC’s trade secrets with the rival. In addition, the foundry has accused Lo of contract breach as he signed both a non-disclosure and a non-compete agreement with TSMC.

Wei-Jen Lo joined TSMC from Intel in 2004 as a Vice President and became Senior Vice President responsible for the company’s advanced process technologies roadmap in 2014. In March 2024, he was reassigned to Corporate Strategy Development, a group that advises the Chairman and the CEO, but is not directly involved in the research and development of next-generation process technologies. But while the new assignment formally removed him from control over TSMC’s R&D organization and process development, he continued calling together engineers from R&D teams who were not under his command to gather updates on technologies they were working on and process technologies that were at the stage of pathfinding and would be developed sometime in the future, according to TSMC. "There is a high probability that Lo uses, leaks, discloses, delivers, or transfers TSMC’s trade secrets and confidential information to Intel, thus making legal actions (including claiming damages for breach of contract) necessary," the company told Tom's Hardware.

TSMC says that shortly after leaving the company in July 2025, Lo became an Executive Vice President at Intel, a plan he failed to reveal to TSMC’s General Counsel during the exit interview. Based on Lo’s access to unreleased technical information, his continued contact with R&D staff from 2024 to 2025, and his immediate arrival at a major competitor, TSMC alleges that there is a strong likelihood that he may use or disclose the company’s trade secrets to Intel. "

“During his employment, Lo had signed a Non-disclosure Agreement and Non-compete Agreement,” a statement by TSMC reads. “When the General Counsel of TSMC, Sylvia Fang, conducted exit interview with Lo on July 22nd, 2025, she provided a reminder notice for Lo to read thoroughly. During the exit interview, the General Counsel also explained the non-compete obligation after separation and inquired about his plans after retirement, Lo replied that he would join an academic institution, and did not mention his plan to join Intel.”

Given these circumstances, TSMC states that it has asked the Taiwanese Intellectual Property and Commercial Court to intervene and stop the potential wrongdoing. However, it is unclear how exactly TSMC plans to enforce the court’s decision in the U.S. and make Lo depart from Intel. Intel was not immediately available for comment.

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