SHANGHAI: More than a hundred employees of Taiwanese tech giant TMSC are set to join smaller, less well-known Chinese chip factories after being promised much higher salaries.

Chinese Government-backed manufacturers, such as QXIC and HSMC, have been buying up TMSC talent in the rush to ramp up production.

HSMC has offered skilled workers salaries more than two-and-a-half times what they would receive at TSMC, plus bonuses, according to the Nikkei Asian Review.

The companies are taking advantage of Chinese government tax exemptions aimed at accelerating the semiconductor production process, which has left companies like Huawei with a chip shortage.