Intel CEO defends hiring former TSMC exec: ‘He continues to have our full support’

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan told employees Wednesday that the company had acted ethically when it hired a former executive from rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

TSMC sued the executive, Wei-Jen Lo, on Tuesday. It alleged that Lo violated a nondisclosure agreement by joining Intel as a vice president after his retirement from the Taiwanese company.

In a message to employees Wednesday morning, Tan defended the hiring and said the company stands behind its principles.

“Based on everything we know today, we see no merit to the allegations involving Wei-Jen, and he continues to have our full support,” Tan told employees in the memo, reviewed by The Oregonian/OregonLive. He said Lo will work in Intel’s manufacturing group and its packaging business.

Intel confirmed Lo’s hiring in a statement to The Oregonian/OregonLive, its first public comment on the matter. The company said Lo will help revitalize Intel’s engineering culture.

“As part of this transformation, 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,” Intel said.

“Intel maintains rigorous policies and controls that strictly prohibit the use or transfer of any third-party confidential information or intellectual property,” the company said in its statement.

In Wednesday’s email to employees, Tan said that “Freedom to work, to apply our skills, and to move between companies has been a cornerstone of innovation in the semiconductor industry since the earliest days.“

In fact, employees moving among companies has long been a point of contention in the tech industry. A decade ago, Intel joined Apple, Adobe and Google in paying a $415 million settlement over allegations that they had an agreement not to hire one another’s employees.

TSMC is the world’s most advanced chip manufacturer, producing leading-edge chips for Nvidia, Apple, AMD and many other tech businesses. Intel badly wants to take a slice of that business but often treads lightly with TSMC, which also manufactures some of Intel’s most advanced chips.