TSMC managed to escape a devastatingly powerful earthquake although it could take $60 million off Q2 earnings.
This morning, the U.S. woke up to the news that a powerful 7.4 magnitude earthquake had hit Taiwan, the strongest earthquake in the region over the last 25 years. After worrying about the human toll of this tragedy and how expensive and time-consuming it will be to rebuild, the next thought many had was whether the world’s leading contract chip foundry, TSMC, suffered serious damage and what the effect might be to its top customers such as Apple, MediaTek, AMD, and Qualcomm.
CNN reports that the quake killed nine people while buildings collapsed and landslides were spotted. TSMC is located on the opposite side of the island from where the center of the earthquake hit allowing it to escape without sustaining more serious damages. Shaking was felt in the company’s offices and fabs. Some of those production facilities did shake so much that workers had to be evacuated. Later in the day on Wednesday, TSMC allowed workers to return to the assembly lines after announcing that everyone was safe.
While the news was good for TSMC and its customers, the world’s largest foundry did report some damage to some of its chip-making equipment.
