The News
Billionaire semiconductor veteran Morris Chang holds many secrets of the chip industry, and he is now sharing them publicly. Chang, the founder of TSMC, revealed in his latest memoir that he asked Nvidia’s Jensen Huang twice if he’d consider taking the helm at the Taiwanese chip giant. Huang declined.
It’s hard to imagine Nvidia as the global powerhouse it is today without Huang in charge, even with heightened demand for semiconductors. Chang invited Huang aboard in 2013, when Nvidia’s market cap was a mere $9 billion against TSMC’s $91 billion. Nvidia’s market cap now topples $3 trillion.
At the book’s launch event in Taipei on Monday, 93-year-old Chang also shed light on the challenges facing Intel and his relationships with its top executives. He described a friendly relationship with Intel co-founders Gordon Moore and Bob Noyce. But Chang said Intel’s most recent CEO Pat Gelsinger, who departed earlier this month, “seemed to be hostile” towards TSMC.
“It seems [Intel’s board members] have not yet decided the company’s future strategy,” he said. “It seems they are looking for both a new strategy and a new CEO, which is very hard.”
Chang’s memoir also details how TSMC built relationships with Apple, Qualcomm, and Nvidia, as well as his efforts to help jumpstart the Taiwanese economy and tech industry. Interested readers will have to brush up on their language skills, though, as it is only available in Chinese at the moment.