TSMC sued Wei-Jen Lo on Tuesday, claiming he violated his NDA by joining Troubled Chipzilla shortly after retiring from the Taiwanese giant. Chief executive Lip-Bu Tan told staff on Wednesday that the company had behaved properly when it rehired him.

Tan said: “Based on everything we know today, we see no merit to the allegations involving Wei-Jen, and he continues to have our full support.” He told employees that Lo will work in Chipzilla’s manufacturing group and packaging business.

Intel confirmed Lo’s hire in a statement to The Oregonian, saying he would help revive the engineering culture that once made the company feared.

The statement said: “As part of this transformation, Intel has welcomed back Wei-Jen Lo, who previously spent 18 years at Intel working on the development of Intel’s wafer processing technology before joining TSMC, where he continued his work in their wafer processing technology development.”

The company added: “Intel maintains rigorous policies and controls that strictly prohibit the use or transfer of any third-party confidential information or intellectual property.”

Tan reminded employees that movement between chipmakers has always fuelled progress. He said: “Freedom to work, to apply our skills, and to move between companies has been a cornerstone of innovation in the semiconductor industry since the earliest days.”

Mobility has long been a sore point in tech. Troubled Chipzilla once paid into a $415 million settlement alongside Apple, Adobe and Google after allegations that they had agreed not to poach one another’s workers.

TSMC remains the leading edge of chipmaking and churns out silicon for Nvidia, Jobs’ Mob, AMD and most of the industry that matters.