Disclosure certainty 3/5 debate potential 3/5

Chang: TSMC matched Intel in technology and beat it in manufacturing in 2011

Morris Chang · TSMC founder Morris Chang · Acquired · Jan 27, 2025 · at 1:40:18

TSMC founder Morris Chang reflects on his confidence when Intel attempted to win Apple's iPhone processor business away from TSMC in early 2011.

0:00 / 0:33exact quote · 33.3s
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“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 customers trusted us more than Intel's customers trusted Intel.”

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