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[News] TSMC Founder Morris Chang to Release Autobiography in November, Highlighting His Life at TI and TSMC
Will the secret of the world’s top foundry finally be revealed? The second volume of the autobiography of Morris Chang, TSMC founder, is scheduled to be published on November 29th, according to the reports by Taiwanese media outlets CNA and Liberty Times.
The second volume of the book, written in Chang’s own hand and is his only biography, is said to cover his career from 1964 to 2018, dating back to his life at Texas Instruments and all the way to his retirement from TSMC, CNA notes.
Giving the readers a heads up on its website, Commonwealth Publishing, the autobiography’s publisher, cites Chang’s quote on the saga – “When I founded a semiconductor company, there was only one path: to make it a world-class one.”
Chang is regarded as the “godfather” of Taiwan’s semiconductor industry. Founding TSMC at the age of 55, Chang has led the foundry giant for more than three decades, building it into a multibillion-dollar enterprise. With its expertise at the advanced nodes, TSMC can boast to have the world’s most prestigious clientele, as it manufactures chips for tech heavyweights Intel, Samsung, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm.
The first volume of the autobiography was published in 1998, spanning nearly 100K words and covering Chang’s early days from 1931 to 1964, while the second volume is said to span around 200K words, according to Liberty Times.
Citing Chang’s previous remarks, Liberty Times notes that the second part of the autobiography would focus on the “TSMC miracle”, as well as a brief introduction of his time at U.S. electronics manufacturer General Instrument and ITRI, one of Taiwan’s major technology research institutes which pioneers Taiwan’s IC development.
According to the information compiled by Stanford University, born in China, Chang moved to Hong Kong and then to the U.S., where he attended Harvard and MIT. His employer, Texas Instruments, sent him to Stanford for his PhD in electrical engineering, which he earned in 1964.
By 1983, he had advanced to the position of group vice president overseeing TI’s global semiconductor operations before departing to take the helm at General Instrument Corp in 1984.
According to CNA, Chang resigned in 1985 and was invited to Taiwan to serve as President of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). In 1987, he founded TSMC. In 2005, Chang stepped down as CEO to focus on his role as Chairman, handing the position to Rick Tsai. However, in 2009, he returned as CEO while continuing as Chairman to lead TSMC in the new era.
In 2013, Morris Chang stepped down as TSMC CEO for the second time, handing over the leadership to Mark Liu and C.C. Wei. In 2018, he retired from TSMC, with Mark Liu becoming Chairman and C.C. Wei assuming the role of CEO.
Despite his retirement, TSMC’s performance has remained strong. In addition to the booming demand of 3nm and 5nm chips driven by AI, TSMC also accelerates its global expansion, including the U.S., Japan and Germany.
According to TSMC Chairman and CEO C.C. Wei’s projection in July, thanks to the strong demand from AI and smartphones for advanced nodes, 2024 will be a strong year for TSMC. The company expects this year’s revenue to increase by 24-26% (mid-20%), hitting a historical high.
(Photo credit: AIT)
