Unknown computer virus halts Apple's next iPhone chip manufacturing plant

A computer virus outbreak has hit third-quarter results at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, the company said on Sunday.

On Saturday, TSMC, a major supplier of Apple Inc, said that a number of its computer systems and fab tools had been infected by a virus, but the problem had been contained.

The company expects full recovery on Aug. 6, the company said in an updated statement on Sunday.

“TSMC expects this incident to cause shipment delays and additional costs. We estimate the impact to third quarter revenue to be about three per cent, and impact to gross margin to be about one percentage point,” it said.

“The Company is confident shipments delayed in the third quarter will be recovered in the fourth quarter 2018 and maintains its forecast of high single-digit revenue growth for 2018 in US dollars given on July 19, 2018.”

The chipmaker has notified its customers and is working with them on the wafer delivery schedule. Details will be provided to each customer individually over the next few days, it said.

The virus outbreak occurred during the software installation for a new tool, which caused a virus to spread once the tool was connected to the company’s computer network, TSMC said.

“Data integrity and confidential information were not compromised. TSMC has taken actions to close this security gap and further strengthen security measures,” it said.

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