Morris Chang
TSMC Founder & Semiconductor Pioneer
Modern Taiwan
1931–
Morris Chang, born in 1931 in Ningbo, Zhejiang, China, is the key figure behind Taiwan's semiconductor industry and the global chip supply chain. He pursued his education through wartime upheaval before studying in the United States, earning a master's degree from MIT and a doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University. He spent many years at Texas Instruments, rising to senior vice president, one of the few ethnic Chinese to reach the upper ranks of a major American technology company. In 1985 he was invited to Taiwan to head the Industrial Technology Research Institute, taking up the planning and upgrading of Taiwan's technology industry. In 1987 he founded the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), pioneering the entirely new "dedicated foundry" business model — neither designing nor selling branded chips but focusing on manufacturing for clients worldwide. This model transformed the division of labor in the semiconductor industry, enabling the rise of fabless design firms and making TSMC the sector's central hub. Under his leadership TSMC long held the lead in advanced process technology, becoming the world's largest contract chipmaker. Semiconductors thus came to be seen as Taiwan's "sacred mountain of national protection," bearing on global technology and geopolitics. He retired and returned before finally handing over leadership in 2018, and had represented Taiwan at international forums such as APEC. Chang is regarded as the pivotal force in Taiwan's transformation from a contract-manufacturing island into a technology powerhouse, his entrepreneurship and management philosophy profoundly shaping the industrial landscape of Taiwan and the world.
Founded Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (1987)
Pioneered the dedicated-foundry business model
TSMC Founder & Semiconductor Pioneer
Morris Chang
Era
Modern Taiwan
Lifespan
1931–
Morris Chang, born in 1931 in Ningbo, Zhejiang, China, is the key figure behind Taiwan's semiconductor industry and the global chip supply chain. He pursued his education through wartime upheaval before studying in the United States, earning a master's degree from MIT and a doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University. He spent many years at Texas Instruments, rising to senior vice president, one of the few ethnic Chinese to reach the upper ranks of a major American technology company. In 1985 he was invited to Taiwan to head the Industrial Technology Research Institute, taking up the planning and upgrading of Taiwan's technology industry. In 1987 he founded the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), pioneering the entirely new "dedicated foundry" business model — neither designing nor selling branded chips but focusing on manufacturing for clients worldwide. This model transformed the division of labor in the semiconductor industry, enabling the rise of fabless design firms and making TSMC the sector's central hub. Under his leadership TSMC long held the lead in advanced process technology, becoming the world's largest contract chipmaker. Semiconductors thus came to be seen as Taiwan's "sacred mountain of national protection," bearing on global technology and geopolitics. He retired and returned before finally handing over leadership in 2018, and had represented Taiwan at international forums such as APEC. Chang is regarded as the pivotal force in Taiwan's transformation from a contract-manufacturing island into a technology powerhouse, his entrepreneurship and management philosophy profoundly shaping the industrial landscape of Taiwan and the world.
Founded Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (1987)
Pioneered the dedicated-foundry business model