Microchip, all China’s espionage towards Applied Materials and beyond
Applied Materials has accused a rival company (but controlled by the Beijing government) of trying to steal its expertise and industrial secrets. ASML and Samsung have also been victims of Chinese espionage
US semiconductor firm Applied Materials, the country's largest supplier of microchip manufacturing equipment, is suing a rival company for trying to steal some highly valuable trade secrets. The accused company is Mattson, a Californian company which in 2016 was acquired by a Chinese entity, the Beijing E-Town Dragon Semiconductor Industry Investment Center. A big geopolitical game is being played on microchips because Joe Biden's United States is trying to prevent China from accessing the most advanced technologies for the development of these devices , in order to block the rival's industrial-military development.
THE CHARGE OF APPLIED MATERIALS
According to Applied Materials, Mattson – and therefore Beijing E-Town – would have adopted an employee-poaching strategy against him: in essence, he would have convinced Applied Materials workers to resign and then hire them and thus obtain their know-how . In addition to this, Mattson allegedly performed surreptitious maneuvers for the transfer of semiconductor machine designs.
In just over a year, Mattson hired seventeen top-level engineers from Applied Materials, some of whom knew sensitive information such as the company's chipmaking processes and technology strategy.
THE ROLE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA
“Many of these documents are highly sensitive, technical, and contain Applied trade secrets and know-how that would give Mattson years of competitive advantage in its technology trajectory and development,” Applied Materials said. Mattson belongs to Beijing E-Town, which in turn is managed by the Beijing city authorities, therefore by the Chinese Communist Party.
Mattson – as reported by Bloomberg , which yesterday revealed the lawsuit between the two companies, which began in 2022 – has denied the allegations.
CHINESE ESPIONAGE TOWARDS ASML AND SAMSUNG
Earlier this year, ASML , one of the world's most advanced chipmaking machinery companies (based in the Netherlands), accused a former employee located in China of participating in the theft of confidential technology information. And just a few days ago, South Korean authorities accused a former Samsung Electronics executive of trying to set up a semiconductor factory in China based on the stolen blueprints and designs.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/cina-spionaggio-semiconduttori-applied-materials/ on Fri, 16 Jun 2023 09:50:17 +0000.