Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the semiconductor chip-making juggernaut, evacuated its workers after a 7.4 magnitude earthquake ro

TSMC shrugs off Taiwan’s biggest earthquake in 25 years, showing its massive chip foundry mega-complexes are nearly quake-proof

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2024-04-04 05:00:04

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the semiconductor chip-making juggernaut, evacuated its workers after a 7.4 magnitude earthquake rocked the country on Wednesday, reporting no major damages. Its employees returned to work only hours after aftershocks rippled through the island. It’s not the company’s first rodeo in navigating natural disasters.

TSMC, the primary chip supplier for Apple and AI darling Nvidia, told Fortune it moved its workers from some of its production centers as a precautionary measure and temporarily halted operations during the earthquake and its immediate aftershocks. While the company reported damage in a “small number” of tools and has an ongoing inspection to assess full damages, it said its fabrication plants recovered 70% of tools within 10 hours of the earthquake, and that its “critical tools,” such as its multimillion-dollar extreme ultraviolet lithography tools, remain unharmed.

“TSMC is deploying all available resources for full recovery, and impacted facilities are expected to resume production throughout the night,” TSMC said in a statement to Fortune.