After winning its case against Chinese Chip maker SMIC, TSMC wants the outfit to pay it more than a billion dollars. If it gets its way, then TSMC could force SMIC to offer itself for sale to the highest bidder. Currently it has more than a billion dollars in debt and $500,000 in the bank.

TSMC stressed that the Alameda County Superior Court jury will now enter the second phase of the trial where it will review evidence of the harm TSMC suffered as a result of SMIC's misappropriation and breach of their settlement agreement from November 2009.

While it says that compensation estimates are at this stage still only speculation, one billion dollars has been touted as a likely figure. The court case, which some think could have gone either way, was held over whether the Chinese company SMIC has been misappropriating TSMC's trade secrets after a legal settlement was reached between the two in 2005.