TSMC, the leading manufacturer of many of today’s top-performance computer chips, including those from Nvidia, AMD, and Apple, reportedly halted production and evacuated some locations.

The Guardian has confirmed with TSMC that workers are returning to its factories in the area. However, further inspections of the susceptible equipment used in the production of computer chips are still ongoing.

The company said its safety systems are operating normally. According to the procedure, preventive measures were initiated, and some factories were evacuated. All personnel are safe, and those evacuated are beginning to return to their workplaces.

TSMC decided to suspend work at construction sites for today, and work will resume following further inspections."

The temporary shutdown's impact on the global semiconductor supply chain will take a while to assess and understand. However, even a brief momentary closure could have lasting effects on the market. Digitimes reports that Taiwan’s Hsinchu Science Park administration, covering the area where much of Taiwan’s technology companies’ operations are located, expects no significant impact and says operations remained stable.

The eastern side of Taiwan was closest to the earthquake's epicentre, but the quake was felt across the island. Many of TSMC’s factory locations have earthquake protection measures on the island's western side.

Most of the world's semiconductor production is concentrated in Taiwan, where a few companies, such as TSMC, Intel, and Samsung, are involved in chip production. However, these companies are now looking to expand their production facilities to other locations. Intel plans to expand its facilities in the US, Israel, and Ireland and is building a new factory in Germany. TSMC and Samsung are also building new capacity in the US, with TSMC expanding its capacity in Japan.

Analyst TrendForce has published a report on the impact of the earthquake on Taiwan's production lines.

TrendForce confirms that some TSMC facilities were temporarily shut down. However, it notes that the 4nm process responsible for Nvidia’s graphics cards did not have to evacuate personnel due to its location in the Southern Taiwan Science Park. The analyst firm expects a minimal impact on supply.

The powerful quake may have affected the DRAM supply, namely Micron’s, but the long-term impact is expected to be minimal.

According to TrendForce, no “significant equipment damages” have been reported since factory inspections.