Companies withhold key data in US chip survey

One day ahead of the deadline of the US government's request for global chip companies to submit supply chain data, 20 entities complied but have withheld most data considered sensitive.

In September, the US Commerce Department asked major semiconductor manufacturers and buyers, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC, Samsung, Intel and Apple, to provide information on inventories and sales of chips by Monday to address what it has called a shortage of chips that has hurt many industries.

The survey is voluntary, but the Commerce Department said it could make it compulsory if the number and quality of responses are not satisfying.

As of Sunday, 15 companies, including 10 foreign companies, and five universities, including Cornell University and the University of California, Berkeley, have submitted data.

The questionnaire seeks answers to inventories, backlogs, delivery times, and each product's top three customers as well as the sales percentage those customers represent. The lists of major customers and output volume are considered as the most sensitive data by the industry.

TSMC, the world's biggest chipmaker, submitted the form on Friday. Three other companies also from Taiwan — United Microelectronics Corp, ASE and Global Wafers Co Ltd — have provided some data.

Other foreign companies that have responded are from Israel, Canada, Germany, Singapore and Japan.

Micron, Western Digital and three other US companies have submitted some information.

According to the data posted publicly by the Bureau of Industry and Security under the Commerce Department, those companies responded with various levels of exposure to the sensitive information, and all of them withheld the information on their customers and production volumes.

TSMC left most of the form blank, it said in a statement to Bloomberg on Sunday, saying it remains committed to "protecting customers' confidentiality as always".

Samsung Electronics, the world's second-largest contract chipmaker, and other South Korean companies hadn't responded as of Sunday. The country's finance ministry said in a statement on Sunday that the companies have been negotiating with the US on the extent of data to be submitted, without elaboration.

According to South Korean newspaper, The Hankyoreh, chip giants like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix will submit data to the US government by the Monday deadline so long as the information does not violate nondisclosure agreements with customers.

"The understanding is that most information that could pose problems in contracts with customers will not be submitted," an official at the South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy was cited as saying by an article in The Hankyoreh.

Chips are vital to every aspect of daily life, from smartphones to motor vehicles. The global chip shortage crisis has severely impacted manufacturing capacity across industries, with the automakers taking the hardest hit. Experts expect that the shortage may continue into 2022 and 2023.

The US Commerce Department said the goal of the survey is to identify data gaps and bottlenecks in the chips supply chain. At a meeting with senior executives from Intel, General Motors, Ford, Apple, Samsung and other domestic and foreign companies, US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said she might invoke the Defense Production Act, a Cold War-era law, to compel the companies to comply.

The move has sparked controversy, as critics said it reveals companies' business secrets rather than assessing chip supply and demand.