China said on Wednesday that Taiwan is seeking to give away the island's semiconductor industry to the United States as a "souvenir" and leverage it to seek political support from Washington.

U.S. media has said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's largest contract chipmaker and a major supplier to companies such as Apple and Nvidia, has been in talks for a stake in Intel.

Neither TSMC nor Intel has confirmed the reports, and Taiwan's government says it has not received information about any overseas investment application from TSMC.