Morris Chang, the man behind the biggest company you've never heard of.

I recently spent a month in Taiwan, the land of boba tea, xiao long bao, and, as it turns out, the real Silicon Valley. Taiwan may not be the first place you think of when it comes to the tech world, but some of the most powerful companies in the world, (Apple, Nvidia, Qualcomm), wouldn’t be where they are today without one man: Morris Chang, the founder of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). I spent the day nerding out at the TSMC museum in Hsinchu, and even found the very first pitch deck from back in 1986 (more on this next week).

PSA: Reservations open one month in advance in monthly batches and within hours, each month is fully booked. It’s free to visit and they only allow 15 people in at a time. Check it out here.

TSMC Museum, Hsinchu

TSMC is now the 9th largest company in the world with a casual market cap of > $1T. And while you may not see their logo on the back of your phone, the chips they manufacture are inside just about every piece of tech you use. But behind this industry titan is a story of resilience, reinvention, and a man, who despite setbacks, never gave up.

The Early Years: War and MIT Failures

Morris Chang’s life wasn’t a smooth path to success. Before the age of 18, Morris lived through three wars. Born in Ningbo, China in 1931, he and his family fled the turmoil and eventually ended up in Hong Kong, then the U.S.

Excerpts from the TSMC Museum

At 18, Morris initially enrolled into Harvard, but ended up transferring to MIT where he finally found his footing in mechanical engineering. He went on to fail the Doctoral qualifying exams (twice!) before dropping out after his bachelors.

Climbing the Corporate Ladder at TI (and facing setbacks)

Fast forward to 1958, Morris landed a job at Texas Instruments (TI), a big name in the semiconductor world. This was the moment when his real journey into semiconductors began. At TI, Morris was on the fast track to becoming CEO. But then came the curveball. Instead of continuing toward the top, TI sent Morris to work on their B2C business, something he wasn’t particularly passionate about. And, unsurprisingly, he wasn’t exactly successful in this role either. After 30 years of working at TI, Morris found his career there coming to an end. He was 52 years old, facing two major setbacks in his career at a point where many would consider slowing down, perhaps even retiring. But not Morris.

At 56, Morris received a life-changing offer from Taiwan’s government. Taiwan wanted to build a cutting-edge semiconductor industry, and who better to lead that than Morris Chang? The Minister of Economic Affairs gave him a proposition he famously described as “an offer I couldn’t refuse.”

The first TSMC pitch deck in 1986

The Morris Business Model

Morris packed his bags and moved to Taiwan to start a new chip company from scratch. He was first tasked with creating a pitch for TSMC and with it, a new business model that would transform the semiconductor industry.

At the time all chipmakers had a completely verticalised model, they all had their own foundries, their own chip designers and each individual company had to shell out millions for an end to end solution. Instead of trying to compete with companies like Intel by making their own products, TSMC would manufacture chips for others, focusing purely on being the best at semiconductor manufacturing. This was quite revolutionary at the time, Chang's decision to avoid competing with clients at chip design became the cornerstone of the modern semiconductor ecosystem.

Morris also knew that he needed to make chips at scale to improve the quality quickly, and become the best, so he made the decision to sell the cheapest chips (cheap as chips if you will). This allowed TSMC to win customers, iterate at speed and develop the most advanced products in the world. Once they were the best, he was able to increase the price. This model is common for Saas and AI products today, but at the time it was a bold strategy.

Morris, The Non-Equity Founder

Here’s where things get even more interesting (baffling): despite being the founder of TSMC, Morris Chang didn’t start with any equity in the company. None. He had to buy his own shares later. Imagine that, founding one of the largest companies in the world and starting with zero stake in it.

But Morris wasn’t driven by wealth. He famously said, “I could live according to the way I desire” when asked about his financial situation at 56. For Morris, it wasn’t about building a fortune, it was about building something world-changing.

Morris retired from TSMC at 74, only to return at the age of 78 as CEO to lead the company’s next big leap, making chips for Apple. Even in retirement, Morris was still shaping the future of technology.

Morris Chang returns in 2014 to lead the deal with Apple

What can we learn from Morris Chang’s story? Here are a few takeaways:

1. Resilience is key: Morris faced more setbacks before 55 than most of us will in a lifetime. He saw 3 wars before the age of 18, he failed his qualifying exams, he got sidelined at TI, but he kept bouncing back.

2. Reinvention is powerful: After 30 years in corporate America, Morris didn’t give up when his career at TI ended. He started over and built TSMC from the ground up, changing the global semiconductor industry forever. His story is a reminder that it’s never too late to reinvent yourself and start something new.

3. Success isn’t always about wealth: Even though Morris built a multi-billion dollar company, he didn’t start with any equity (probably wouldn’t recommend that approach), and he wasn’t in it for the money. He was in it for the challenge and the opportunity to change the world.

4. Impact can happen at any stage of life: Morris founded TSMC at 56, retired at 74, and came back at 78 to make the chips that power the devices we use today. It’s a reminder that success doesn’t have an age limit.

If you made it this far thanks for reading, next week I’ll share snippets from TSMC’s very first pitch deck from 1986.