A computer virus halted production at several Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) factories on Friday night, causing a severe disruption as the company ramps up chipmaking for new Apple iPhones.
The sole maker of the iPhone’s main processor said a number of its fabrication tools had been infected, and while it had contained the problem and resumed some production, several of its factories would not restart until at least Sunday. The virus was not introduced by a hacker, the company added in a statement, without elaborating.
It is unclear who targeted TSMC, the world’s biggest contract manufacturer of chips for companies including Apple and Qualcomm. It is the first time a virus had ever brought down a TSMC facility, recalling the WannaCry cyberattacks of 2017 that forced corporations around the world to suspend operations as they rooted out the ransomware.
TSMC is working on solutions now but said the degree of infection varied from factory to factory, and that it would provide more information on Monday after it has assessed the situation.
“TSMC has been attacked by viruses before, but this is the first time a virus attack has affected our production lines,” chief financial officer Lora Ho told Bloomberg News. She declined to discuss how much revenue it would lose as a result of the disruption, or whether the facilities affected were involved in making iPhone chips.
The implications are unclear for Apple. The iPhone maker last week surpassed a market value of $1 trillion, largely on the strength of sales for its pioneering smartphone. The US company in the past has contracted chip foundries owned by Samsung Electronics, its rival in global mobile devices.
A bellwether for the chip industry as well as an early indicator of iPhone demand, TSMC heads into its busiest quarters grappling with waning enthusiasm for the high-powered chips used to mine digital currencies. Chief executive officer CC Wei had said sales would rise this year by a high single-digit percentage in US dollar terms, down from an already reduced projection of about 10%.
“Certain factories returned to normal in a short period of time, and we expect the others will return to normal in one day,” the company said in its Saturday statement.
