News Nvidia accused of poaching TSMC engineers in Taiwan – Salaries offered for talent reach up to $180,000

[Admin]

The media in Taiwan have highlighted the lucrative compensation packages being used to tempt engineers to fill key roles and fuel Nvidia’s ambitious expansion plans.

Nvidia accused of poaching TSMC engineers in Taiwan – Salaries offered for talent reach up to $180,000 : Read more

 

[logainofhades]

How is this news? Companies do this all the time. If you want top talent, you gotta pay for it.

 

[Marlin1975]

How is this news? Companies do this all the time. If you want top talent, you gotta pay for it.

Because they are calling it as a bad thing.
Its still frowned upon by some companies to do so. Hence why we had to make that illegal to do in the US even though many still do it.

 

[thesyndrome]

Is this story meant to imply that TSMC are poor and can't afford to pay their employees a higher salary to keep them from going to Nvidia? The company that EVERY big tech company is bidding for to use their nodes and fabs?
After looking it up, TSMC's market cap is 25 trillion TWD, and Nvidia's market cap (after conversion) is 29 trillion TWD, so it's not like a giant company is bullying a much smaller one that has half it's market cap or less, Nvidia is only about 10% bigger.

I'm just a bit confused at how this is being framed as a bad thing? A higher pay is incentive to change jobs; I'm not Nvidia's biggest fan at the moment, but of all the things to criticize them for, I don't think "they are offering to pay people more" is one of them

 

[GenericUser2001]

I really dislike the term "poaching" (which historically meant hunting animals on land that did not belong to you, and in more modern times means hunting animals without gov permits) being used for companies offering higher wages to attract workers from other companies. Companies have no legitimate claim of ownership over their employees.

 

[DS426]

Offering whatever salary & compensation claims and benefits packages isn't employee poaching -- it's exactly how business is run today (passive listings), fair, ethical, and benefits the labor force. Poaching is active stuff like recruiters at nVidia calling TSMC employees and offering interviews and job offers. I don't see anything like that or otherwise true "poaching" happening, although I would be surprised if it isn't happening.

TSMC pays their employees well, but they also require long, demanding hours. Not everyone wants or can afford that, like many parents (even if an employer has on-site daycare services or vouchers).

 

[DougMcC]

I really dislike the term "poaching" (which historically meant hunting animals on land that did not belong to you, and in more modern times means hunting animals without gov permits) being used for companies offering higher wages to attract workers from other companies. Companies have no legitimate claim of ownership over their employees.

Agree. Offering higher salaries is not poaching. Poaching is stuff like fraudulently or even illegally entering the building and trying to talk engineers into coming to your company (things that have actually happened, but not offered into evidence in this case).

 

[thestryker]

After looking it up, TSMC's market cap is 25 trillion TWD, and Nvidia's market cap (after conversion) is 29 trillion TWD, so it's not like a giant company is bullying a much smaller one that has half it's market cap or less, Nvidia is only about 10% bigger.

I don't know where you're coming up with your numbers, but nvidia's market cap is over 3x TSMC's (~$3.6t vs ~$1t in USD). Of course that doesn't make TSMC an actual underdog as they're in the top 20 or so worldwide still just wanted to correct the mistake here.

 

[Elusive Ruse]

TSMC is angry they can’t keep paying their skilled workers slave wages, I say good for those engineers who get better pay and bonuses at Nvidia.

 

[DSzymborski]

Eh, languages are all full of colorful language of this type that is used innocuously even if it could seem inappropriate when randomly pondering it. Hiring someone is also not *really* the same as "headhunting." Nvidia isn't really committing "highway robbery" nor did anyone exchange "an arm and a leg" for a 5090. Someone getting fired is not really "getting the axe." An idea your boss doesn't agree with wasn't actually "shot down" and if they liked it, you're not really "killing it." You may have "skeletons in your closet," but they consist of secrets, not typically corpses who have been in there long enough for the flesh to fully decompose.

I'd say more, but I have a "deadline" for a piece I'm writing, and I don't want my editor to shoot me dead like an American Civil War prisoner who walked over a line drawn on the ground, which is the origin of the word.

 

[renz496]

Because they are calling it as a bad thing.
Its still frowned upon by some companies to do so. Hence why we had to make that illegal to do in the US even though many still do it.

But Nvidia is not even competing with TSMC in foundry market.

 

[pclaughton]

Alternate headline: Workers being paid what they're worth framed as negative by capitalism.