Taipei, Nov. 20 -- The former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) executive suspected of leaking technical secrets did not have access to the company's core technology, National Development Council (NDC) head Yeh Chun-hsien said Thursday.

Yeh, who also serves on TSMC's board, made the remarks after local media reported that Lo Wei-jen allegedly took confidential information on TSMC's 2-nanometer, A16 and A14 processes before retiring in July and then joining Intel in October.

According to Yeh, TSMC typically reassigns employees one to two years before retirement to other divisions to prevent access to trade secrets. He added that Lo would not have had access to the company's core technology because he had been reassigned more ...