TSMC’s facilities hit by earthquake at Hsinchu science park in Taiwan

Chip manufacturer TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) saw some of its facilities hit by an earthquake on December 27, 2025. The facilities are based in the Hsinchu science park in Taiwan, and the earthquake was strong enough for them to require evacuation.

TSMC facilities hit by an earthquake

In a very brief statement, TSMC confirmed that its facilities at Hsinchu science park, Taiwan, had been hit by an earthquake. The earthquake hit around 20 miles (32 kilometers) off of the coast of Yilan, and had a depth of around 45 miles (73 kilometers), and a magnitude of around 7 on the Richter scale.

Taiwan experienced the earthquake at around 11 PM, local time. The quake was strong enough to collapse some ceilings, according to reports. Relatively speaking, TSMC’s facilities likely got off easy.

Evacuations and safety procedures in play

According to TSMC’s statement, personnel had to be evacuated from the premises. In addition, other safety measures are being carried out, including conducting headcount checks of the evacuated personnel.

TSMC has said that safety systems at all of its facilities are operating normally. However, TSMC has not mentioned if any structural damage has occurred at its facilities, and if its personnel will be returning to work immediately.

A relatively minor hindrance

Fortunately, initial reports make it seem like the earthquake has not affected TSMC’s personnel and facilities too heavily. I do think that the employees should probably be given a few days off, while crews conduct safety inspections across the sites. If some ceilings have collapsed in other areas, then ruling out structural damage too quickly could be fatal.

But once the inspections come back all green, I suspect that TSMC’s personnel will be returning to work immediately. The company is facing competition the likes of which it hasn’t had to contend with for many years. Samsung just announced its self-made 2 nm Exynos 2600, and orders are flying in for its foundry.

Furthermore, the entire tech industry is undergoing a severe spike in demand for various types of chips due to massive AI data centers popping up all over the place. This is an opportunity for chip manufacturers to strike gold, and TSMC isn’t going to let one earthquake slow its operations down.

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