Huawei reportedly tapping TSMC engineers with 3x salary offers

The tension between Huawei and the US government has been one of the hot topics in the tech industry lately. The company has been sanctioned since 2019 and was banned from importing chips manufactured for US-based equipment. While this restriction has affected Huawei, it continues to grow its operations exponentially from its homeland. In its effort to expand the chip manufacturing business, Huawei is reportedly reaching out to TSMC engineers on an average every three months.

Huawei is reportedly approaching TSMC engineers for job offers with mouthwatering salary

According to a French publication, Le Monde, Huawei has been trying to onboard the existing TSMC engineers. The Chinese company is reaching out to engineers on an average every three months with a luring offer of three times the salary of what they are currently getting at TSMC. The TSMC engineers have been getting emails about how they are the perfect fit for the roles and how their experience is in line with Huawei’s needs.

Notably, all these emails come from a recruitment agency hired by Huawei. Now, you must be wondering why Huawei is after TSMC engineers, right? Well, the answer is rather simple. Huawei wants to onboard talent that is familiar with the modern chipset. The company has been dealing with outdated technology for the last five years due to US sanctions which have limited its chipsets to only 7nm thickness. However, this has been a big problem since other smartphone manufacturers are already using 3nm chips.

Although Huawei has been able to produce 5G chips in its homeland, it has shown intentions of manufacturing 5nm chipsets. The problem with Huawei here is it would require people who are familiar with the modern chip manufacturing process. The answer in Huawei’s eyes is TSMC engineers, at least that is what the report says.

Engineers haven’t been responding to such emails

That said, TSMC’s engineers aren’t responding to such emails from Huawei for some obvious reasons. They believe accepting such an offer would mean working with a company deemed a threat to national security and the consequences could be pretty bad in the context of their career. On the other hand, if Huawei lays them off in the future, their present employer (TSMC) wouldn’t consider them for rehiring.

This isn’t the first time TSMC and Huawei have been in the news. More recently, the US government questioned TSMC over dealings with Huawei. Late last month, TSMC even told the US government that it found its chip in Huawei’s product despite the ongoing sanction. It’s no wonder that Huawei is pulling all sorts of tricks to be relevant in the tech market. Moreover, it seems it will continue to do so in the future as well.