TSMC evacuated factory areas after a major earthquake rocked Taiwan on Wednesday, endangering production at the world’s largest maker of advanced chips.

The chip maker to Apple and Nvidia moved staff out of certain areas, spokeswoman Nina Kao said in a text message, without elaborating.

The world’s biggest contract chip maker is still assessing the impact of a temblor measuring 7.4 in magnitude off the east coast, which triggered tsunami warnings.

Taiwanese firms from TSMC to rival United Microelectronics and ASE Technology make the vast majority of the semiconductors that go into devices from iPhones to cars from factories vulnerable to tremors. A single vibration can destroy entire batches of the precision-made semiconductors.

Read: TSMC is becoming the chip maker it didn’t aspire to be

Taiwan is prone to quakes because it’s near the convergence of two tectonic plates. Yet it’s also the source of most high-end chips, required for advanced applications such as AI.  — (c) 2024 Bloomberg LP

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