A significant earthquake has struck Taiwan, shuttering some of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing's chip fabrication plants.

Taiwan's Seismology Centre [1]recorded multiple quakes on Wednesday, local time. The big one, which struck at 07:58 local time, registered 7.5 on the Richter scale.

While the big quake struck off Taiwan's east coast – over 100 kilometers from Taiwan's capital Taipei and the island's tech manufacturing districts – TSMC has [2]reportedly evacuated some of its chip fabrication plants as a safety precaution for its personnel.

[3]

Reports suggest widespread damage in parts of Taiwan, and internet outages have been [4]detected in downtown Taipei.

[5]Japanese earthquake disrupts chip industry operations

[6]Japanese chip plant back online after lightning strike

[7]TSMC boss says one-trillion transistor GPU is possible by early 2030s

But Taiwan's stock exchange, which appears to be operating at the time of writing, has experienced only a minor dip – suggesting businesses are not expecting a major impact.

The country's/rogue province's president Tsai Ing-wen [8]acknowledged the quake on Facebook, and advised residents to stay out of elevators and to seek information on disruptions to rail transport. She added that Taiwan's Central Disaster Response Center has been activated, but offered no information on economic impact of the event.

[9]

Your correspondent has been present in Taiwan during smaller quakes, and received SMS messages advising of sensible precautions. News of the quake caused no discernible response other than alerts sounding out from many phones.

Taiwan lies to the south-west of Japan, whose authorities have [10]issued a tsunami warning and urged citizens to be on guard as strong earthquakes are seldom singular events.

[11]

This is a breaking story and The Register will update it as more information becomes available. ®

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[1] https://scweb.cwb.gov.tw/zh-tw/earthquake/limit

[2] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-03/tsmc-evacuates-production-lines-after-major-taiwan-quake

[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZgzUWbg61A0WmtQzJFOEkQAAAEY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[4] https://twitter.com/netblocks/status/1775331480601813253

[5] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/03/japanese_earthquake_disrupts_chip_industry/

[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/12/japanese_chip_plant_back_online/

[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/01/tsmc_one_trillion_transistor/

[8] https://www.facebook.com/tsaiingwen/posts/pfbid02pr9Fmkw84Jn3ARSLRLy7CPdDDqKHEp2j6aWhwGy8Yii3NDCqG4WcoUJ4T7xZh1Hdl

[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZgzUWbg61A0WmtQzJFOEkQAAAEY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[10] https://www.jma.go.jp/jma/press/2404/03a/202404031030.html

[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZgzUWbg61A0WmtQzJFOEkQAAAEY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/