Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) on Thursday said it stands by its decision to hire a former senior Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd (NYSE:TSM) executive, two days after the Taiwanese contract chipmaker filed a lawsuit alleging Wei-Jen Lo had leaked trade secrets.

Intel did not immediately respond to Benzinga‘s request for a statement. However, the U.S. chipmaker told Reuters and Nikkei Asia in an emailed statement that it sees no basis for the allegations involving Lo.

The company said that talent movement between companies is routine and healthy for the industry, and emphasized that it remains focused on its mission and confident in the integrity and high standards of its team.

See also: Options Corner: Taiwan Semiconductor’s Trade Secret Dispute With Intel Presents A Contrarian Opportunity

TSMC Lawsuit

Lo joined Intel in October after a 21-year career at TSMC, where he played a key role in ramping mass production of cutting-edge 5-nanometer, 3-nm, and 2-nm chips. He reportedly now reports directly to Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan.

TSMC on Tuesday filed legal action against Lo, alleging that he continued to request information from employees in order to gain insight into advanced technologies currently in development and planned for future development at TSMC.

The Taiwanese firm stated that Lo poses “a high probability” of using, leaking, disclosing, or transferring the chipmaker's confidential information and trade secrets to Intel, prompting the need for legal action.

Taiwanese authorities already launched an investigation last week following reports that Lo may have taken advanced Taiwan Semiconductor technology data to Intel.

The investigation comes as Tan drives Intel's turnaround by tightening engineering focus, ramping AI efforts, and rebuilding its foundry business to close the gap with TSMC, which continues to dominate advanced chip manufacturing for Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL).

Benzinga’s Edge Rankings show the stock scoring extremely high on momentum but weak on growth. Price-trend signals flag a negative short-term outlook, while medium- and long-term trends remain positive.

Intel’s stock is up nearly 82% so far this year, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

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