Morris Chang
Founder, TSMC · 1 appearance on the record.
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founderexecutiveengineerauthortsmc.com ↗
In 1987, Morris Chang founded TSMC, pioneering the pure-play semiconductor foundry model that transformed global manufacturing and enabled the rise of fabless chip designers. Before creating TSMC, he spent 25 years at Texas Instruments, where he rose to Group Vice President responsible for worldwide semiconductor operations.
43statements → 22claims → 13claims resolved → 100%fully supported → 4.05/5average certainty → 2.09/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 205said about them ↓
13 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 9 not checkable as stated how the 22 claims stand · each chip opens the sources
22 assertions · 1 opinion · 9 insights · 10 disclosures · 1 what if · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 22 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 13 are resolved, and 9 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.
The record, in short
What the tape says about how Morris argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.
Their most notable supported claim
Chang: 2009 TSMC CEO retake was triggered by 600-700 performance layoffs
“Another problem was the immediate one that triggered me to retake the CO ship because the previous CO had laid off, except he didn't use the term laid off, you know. He used the bad performance review, the worst performance review people, and there were about …”
Expressed certainty vs assessment result
weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet
How they sound: not measured why? →
We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Morris Chang on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.
Everything Morris Chang said on Acquired that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →
Chang: Tim Cook told me in 2011 that Intel cannot run a foundry
“And anyway, he told me there's nothing to worry about because Intel just does not know how to be a Foundry.”
Morris Chang: Mark Liu declined TSMC BD role due to small headcount
“So, I, ah, first offered the marketing, ah, business development job to the guy who was in the Bigger job, advanced technology, Mark. And I explained to him that I did not think he had had any significant marketing experience in the past, and this would, this …”
Chang: None of Taiwan's PC makers liked dealing with Intel
“Before this Apple thing, Apple and we, before Apple became our customer, I knew a lot of Intel's customers in Taiwan. You know, all the PC makers are Intel's customers. I mean, they, none of them liked Intel. None of them.”
Chang: 2009 TSMC CEO retake was triggered by 600-700 performance layoffs
“Another problem was the immediate one that triggered me to retake the CO ship because the previous CO had laid off, except he didn't use the term laid off, you know. He used the bad performance review, the worst performance review people, and there were about …”
Chang: Layoffs based on supervisor performance reviews lack credibility
“People would not respect us if we lay off by performance ratings.
[1196] Ben Gilbert: And why is that?
[1198] Morris Chang: Because it's very subjective. Performance reviews, the performance ratings are done by everyone's own supervisor. So, the 700 was perf…”
Chang: Companies needing workers back within one year should not do layoffs
“If in a year you have to hire people back, you have to hire the laid off people back, then you shouldn't lay off, because the layoff, the separation expense is usually half a year, about half a year, and it takes at least half a year to train a person. So if y…”
Chang: TSMC's 2009 CEO circumvented board approval by framing layoffs as performance dismissals
“So I said to him, if you want to lay off, bring it to the board. I'll call a special board meeting. And I knew what I would ask the board to do, you know, which was not to grant the permission. That's right. But he decided to circumvent that, the CEO, you know…”
Morris Chang: China heavily subsidized and took control of solar manufacturing
“The solar business could have been pretty good. However, China ruined it. They subsidized the hell out of it. And they now control that business, solar cells.”
Chang: TSMC Offered NVIDIA Over $100M with 48-Hour Deadline
“Yes. More than a hundred million. And I also said, our offer is effective, 48 hours. If you do not, there is not going to be, we are not going to argue, we are not going to bargain. If you don't accept the offer within 48 hours, we will have to go to an arbitr…”
Chang: Previous TSMC CEO Offered NVIDIA Zero Dollars in Dispute
“The previous CEO did not even give him a number, you know. The previous CEO gave him zero.”
Morris Chang: Semiconductor foundries are unsuitable for divisional organizational structures
“I really did not think that the foundry business, TSMC's business Was suitable for the divisional structure. Because, you know, we have almost the same group of customers.”
Morris Chang: Non-executive chairmen should only intervene if the company risks collapse
“My principle, when I was, ah, The chairman and not the CEO, ah, was, well, sometimes you have to let the CEO make his own mistakes and learn from them, you know. Ah, of course, ah, not if the whole company is going down the drain, drain, so you have to interfe…”
Chang: TSMC matched Intel in technology and beat it in manufacturing in 2011
“Technology. At that time, we thought we were almost at par with Intel. Almost. In fact, I thought we were, I think I thought we were at par with Intel at that time. Manufacturing. I thought we were better than Intel. And customer trust. We thought that our cus…”
Chang: Co-developing tech with senior partners destroys internal R&D capability
“The company that co-developed something with them will send its engineers to IBM, you know. And when we do that, we lose our ability to develop our own process. We'll have to depend on this co-development thing.”
Chang: TSMC rejected IBM co-development deal that UMC accepted and regretted
“So we declined without having to think about it at all. We declined the IBM office. And IBM, in fact, was quite angry, you know. I mean, they thought we're still a small Taiwan backward place, you know. It's a Taiwan company, and they are going to pick IBM. So…”
Chang: Replaced TSMC CEO kept same pay, grade, and successor status
“Well, as far as the CO is concerned, I didn't keep him. I had More than one nice talk with him. I intended to, and I told him that he was still a potential, ah, successor to me. So I kept him at the same job grade, we have job grades, and the same salary and b…”
Chang: TSMC fixed R&D spending at 8% of revenue through recessions
“So I almost just literally picked a number out ahead.
We've been running six or seven percent already.
So I said, oh, let's pick eight percent.
Okay.
Yeah.
Eight percent, regardless of
Whether there's a recession or not.
And it's just eight percent of revenue…”
Chang: TSMC board questioned suddenly tripling CapEx for 28nm
“Setting the R&D at eight percent of did not, Invite any opposition from the board, but suddenly increasing capital spending, threefold, I think, did invite a lot of questions from the board.”
Chang: I did not foresee how big smartphones would become for 28nm
“No, I didn't. Maybe the business development guy, I mean, that was another interesting story. Yeah, maybe he knew. Maybe he, or at least, I now hope and I, of course, hoped at that time, too, that he had a more detailed visibility than I did”
Chang: Apple's initial TSMC pitch proposed a 40% gross margin
“He did say that we will let you have a 40% gross margin, and I think, well, I didn't say anything. I didn't answer him. I didn't respond to that, but our margin at that time was already 45%, and I was trying to put it up to 50%.”
Chang: TSMC funded Apple ramp via debt and filled half their requested volume
“What we first did our financial planning and we decided not to cut dividend. We decided not to sell new stock. We decided to just borrow. And I mean, this was also with consultation with Goldman Sachs, you know, we chose following. How much? I looked at the nu…”
Chang: Eliminating TSMC's dividend for Apple would have crashed the stock
“About one-third of our investors, shareholders, are very seriously interested in the dividends. So if we do what the Jeff Williams said, oh, a stock is going to drop like hell, you know.”
The other half of the tape: Morris Chang's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 193 times in 16 episodes on Acquired. 12 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most David Rosenthal 161Ben Gilbert 27John Bathgate 2Brinton Johns 2Michael Lewis 1
Statements about Morris Chang, by other people (12)
Morris Chang told Acquired TSMC's solar and memory diversification was a mistake
“We were sitting down with Morris Chang, and he was talking about TSMC, and he told us that one of the ways that they aired was trying to exit the integrated circuit market, or diversify from that market, and go into solar.
Memories, and there was one other thi…”
Rosenthal: Learning Curve Pricing Requires Early Unprofitable Aggressive Pricing
“The insight is that like the goal that you are playing for is to be the largest volume player kind of at the end of the game. So if you take that as a given of like, if we get to be the largest volume player, this is a fixed cost business. This is a scale econ…”
TSMC Was a Solution in Search of a Problem Founders Shouldn't Copy
“It's like Morris Chang and TSMC. It's like, he invented the notion of a fabulous semiconductor company before there was any demand for that, and then it turned out that his timing was exactly right, that, like, within a couple of years, a whole ton of, you kno…”
Bathgate: TSMC keeps margins below its customers to prioritize long-term platform value
“TSMC has lower margins than most of their gross margins than most of their customers. And so at any point they could probably take the margins from 50% to 60% and say, Hey, I'm obviously have a monopoly in this market, but the way, you know, Morris Chang archi…”
Morris Chang received zero founder equity when starting TSMC
“It was zero dollars. Morris Chang got no equity in the company. Zero.”
Taiwan implicitly mandated Morris Chang to build an Intel, not a foundry
“And I do think the implication was go start an Intel, or go start an IBM. It wasn't go start the very first pure play foundry.”
Rosenthal: Texas Instruments was the largest semiconductor company in the late 1950s
“The biggest semiconductor company in all types, digital, analog, everything at that time was not in California. It was in Dallas, Texas. It was Texas Instruments.”
Morris Chang raised Texas Instruments' IBM chip yields to 20% in four months
“After about four months, he gets the yields at the TI plant up to 20%. So twice as good as the first party line at IBM.”
Rosenthal: Morris Chang built his TSMC stake by buying shares with personal cash
“Well, what he did as TSMC started to work, he basically put all of his money into buying. He bought his own shares. In the company. I don't know if it was privately before they went public on the Taiwan Stock Exchange in 1994 and then the New York Stock Exchan…”
Rosenthal: Morris Chang founded TSMC at age 56
“Morris Chang was 56 years old when he founded TSMC, and TSMC is today, I believe, the 11th most valuable”
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
2025 163 mentions in 4 episodes 41 per episode
2024 1 mention in 1 episode
2023 4 mentions in 3 episodes 1 per episode
2022 18 mentions in 6 episodes 3 per episode
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- every mention in 2022, scene by scene →
2021 7 mentions in 2 episodes 4 per episode
Appearances (1)
| Episode | Date | Speaking time |
|---|---|---|
| TSMC founder Morris Chang · Acquired | Jan 27, 2025 | 1h 36m |