Apple Partner TSMC Suffers Virus Outbreak, Anticipates Shipment Delays

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is now anticipating losses and shipment delays after its computer systems and fab tools suffered a degree of virus infection over the weekend.

Apple’s partner disclosed over the weekend that it is expecting a 3 percent impact on its third-quarter revenues due to the virus outbreak that took place last Saturday. In a statement to Digitimes, TSMC said that it is now expecting the repercussions of the incident, but it is optimistic that things will get better in the fourth quarter.

“TSMC expects this incident to cause shipment delays and additional costs,” the top foundry service provider said. “We estimate the impact to third quarter revenue to be about three percent, and impact to gross margin to be about one percentage point.”

The company added that its fourth quarter will make up for whatever losses it will incur in the current three-month period. It is confident that its revenue will recover in the fourth quarter and believes that its forecast of high single-digit revenue growth for 2018 will be realized.

On the evening of Aug. 3, Saturday, TSMC disclosed that a number of its computer systems and fab tools got infected by a computer virus. The infection varied by fab, but the company contained the problem right away.

In an earlier update to Digitimes, TSMC insisted that the “rumors of a hacker attack are incorrect.” The infection was reportedly due to a misoperation during the software installation process for a new tool. Nevertheless, it maintained that certain fabs managed to return to normal operations in a short span of time.

The company also notified its clients about the infection and has since discussed with them their modified wafer delivery schedule. Full details about the schedule will be relayed to each client over the next few days. TSMC also assured clients that confidential information was not compromised by the outbreak.

At 2 p.m. Taiwan time on Sunday, TSMC shared that 80 percent of affected systems and tools had already recovered. At the time, it said that full recovery is expected to happen on Monday, Aug. 6.