Luo Weiren became Intel’s biggest hero for reversing the yield turnaround? What threats could talent leaving TSMC bring to Taiwan?

Intel (Intel) releases its first-quarter 2026 earnings, with both revenue growth and earnings per share (EPS) coming in above expectations. After-hours trading, the stock price surged more than 20% on the spot. However, TSMC’s former senior vice president of R&D, Lo Wei-jen, was accused last year of taking critical process information for advanced nodes such as 2nm and defecting to Intel. Now Intel’s seemingly dramatic leap in yield has also raised concerns from the outside. This issue has moved from the realm of corporate competition to a national security crisis that is crucial to Taiwan’s overall interests.

(Intel beats guidance, AI demand drives a CPU turnaround; after Chen Liwu takes over, INTC is up 3x)

A Mengtsung’s look-alike? Lo Wei-jen switches to Intel after 20 years at TSMC

Looking back, Lo Wei-jen previously worked at Intel for 18 years, then moved to TSMC, where he served for 21 years, deeply involved in R&D and integration for EUV and the 2nm process. As late as last July, TSMC even held a send-off for his retirement at age 75. Yet only three months later, news broke that he would be appointed Intel’s executive vice president.

According to a report by FTNN News Network, although Lo Wei-jen was no longer responsible for technical R&D before leaving, he nonetheless requested that subordinates give briefings on advanced process technologies before his departure—and took away a large amount of sensitive information as he left Taiwan. TSMC then filed a lawsuit, alleging that he “may have used or leaked TSMC business secrets and confidential information” to Intel. The Intellectual Property division of Taiwan’s High Prosecutors’ Office launched searches and seized approximately NT$2 billion of Lo Wei-jen’s assets. Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin also stepped to the front line, saying he would revoke Lo’s status as an academician at the Industrial Technology Research Institute.

This stir led many people to recall the 2011 Liang Meng-song incident. At that time, TSMC’s R&D heavyweight Liang Meng-song jumped ship to Samsung, helping Samsung move from 28nm straight to 14nm—one time crossing three generations. Not only did it begin mass production about half a year earlier than TSMC’s 16nm process, it also grabbed part of the Apple A9 processor orders from TSMC. TSMC ultimately succeeded with a lawsuit, and Liang Meng-song was ruled prohibited from continuing to work for Samsung. Ironically, the key person who helped TSMC in court testimony that year was none other than Lo Wei-jen himself.

Intel’s yield surges by leaps and bounds—was Lo Wei-jen the key driving force?

Intel’s 18A yield curve indeed has a timeline that is worth pondering. By the end of 2024, the 18A yield was only about 5%. In the summer of 2025, it was still hovering around 10%, and most observers were not optimistic. However, the yield rose rapidly in the following months. In Intel’s first-quarter 2026 earnings report, it again got ahead with results that were “better than internal expectations.” The maturity of the 14A process also surpassed the initial performance of 18A at the same development stage.

Users on the X platform cross-referenced this timing with Lo Wei-jen’s joining, believing that “new professional knowledge indeed started to appear on wafer finished products about six months later,” and they think this is precisely the time when Lo Wei-jen’s TSMC technology contributions would come into play. The AI chip project TeraFab under Musk’s umbrella confirmed it will adopt Intel’s 14A process, and this is also seen as an important external indicator of confidence.

Finally, I know why Taiwan mobilized the entire country to surround and crack down on Lo Wei-jen. This is a leapfrog decision that truly determines the fate of humanity. Intel really has the ability to turn that folder of N2 A16 A14 secrets into a once-in-a-century reversal. They really have the power to change the fate of American semiconductors—and even the fate of the United States.

This is even more “Liang Meng-song than Liang Meng-song.” It’s already the most unbelievable reversal story of this century $INTC pic.twitter.com/bkOuczPy2b

— Diamond Rapids (@diamondrapids) April 23, 2026

Of course, this inference also cannot be verified at the moment. Intel’s official position is that what Lo Wei-jen brought was personal expertise, not stolen confidential information. At a earnings call, current CEO Chen Liwu attributed the yield improvement to a systemic upgrade by the overall manufacturing team.

Not just Lo Wei-jen: Chen Liwu and the U.S. government also deserve credit

In fact, to fully explain Intel’s turnaround, Lo Wei-jen is only possibly one of the factors; the other two forces cannot be ignored either.

First is Chen Liwu’s management revolution. After he succeeded the role of CEO from Pat Gelsinger (Pat Gelsinger), he led Intel’s transformation. Chen Liwu is flexible in his approach and actively worked to repair relationships with Taiwanese manufacturers, Japanese equipment vendors, the U.S. government, and other parties. He even helped facilitate NVIDIA (NVIDIA)’s investment of as much as $5 billion, rebuilding Intel’s foundation of trust within the semiconductor ecosystem.

Second is policy support from the Trump administration. The (CHIPS Act) allowed the U.S. government to take an equity stake in Intel. Nearly $10 billion in subsidies enabled it to expand wafer fabs in Arizona and Oregon. The U.S. views semiconductor manufacturing as a core national strategic priority. Intel’s mission is no longer just a commercial one—it has become a policy tool for U.S. semiconductor self-reliance.

This level of national resource investment is a structural advantage that no single individual talent can achieve alone.

(Intel keeps climbing for 9 straight days, closing in on record highs—the U.S. government is the biggest winner)

A national-security loophole created by talent exodus: Taiwan can’t just keep patching the damage after it happens

However, the Lo Wei-jen case is only the latest chapter in Taiwan’s high-tech industry talent leakage problem. Looking back at the well-known Liang Meng-song case: after losing his lawsuit, he bounced around and then switched to SMIC in China to take over as CEO, helping it mass-produce 28nm and 14nm processes, which led to a collapse in pricing in the mature process market. In addition, including 华亚科 (now Micron in Taiwan)’s DRAM secrets, as well as charging-station design jointly developed by Delta Electronics and Tesla, have also been taken by senior managers and leaked to China.

As Citini analyst Jukan put it: “When Jensen Huang and Wey Zhejia say that TSMC’s technology won’t be copied just because a few people leave, aren’t they wrong? Intel 14A’s progress seems to be faster than I expected.”

Focusing on the Lo Wei-jen case, what Taiwan faces is not only a business loss for one company, but a fundamental test of whether Taiwan’s strategy of building the nation through technology can continue. Finding a balance between attracting talent, retaining talent, and protecting core technologies is a challenge that both the Taiwan government and the industry cannot avoid.

This article 罗唯仁成 Intel 良率逆转勝最大功臣？人才出走台積電会给台灣帶來什麼危機？ first appeared on 鏈新聞 ABMedia.