Do you know TSMC, and its history? 'Genius' uncovers 'genius'

A few friends had been asking me for quite a while to write something about TSMC's history. Well, I did, about a year-and-a-half back! At that time, Dataquest did not even have any section on ESDM. Better late than never! Reproducing here, for Dataquest readers. 

First question: How many of you have heard of Kuo-Ting Li, or Kwoh-Ting Li, or KT Li? Ok, Morris Chang? Alright, TSMC?

Let's go back a bit! In Nov. 2023, Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) founder, Dr. Morris Chang, became the recipient of the first KT Li Award. What many people do not know is that, back in 1976, Dr. Chang was invited to Taiwan by Chinese Institute of Engineers. Back then, KT Li had given him three choices: First, be president of the Industrial Technology Research Institute. Second, be technology advisor to the premiere. Third, be the venture capital enterprise. The salary offered was the same for each one.

From 1985 onward, how to go about establishing Taiwan Semiconductor’s business model was Dr. Chang’s idea. Its promotion, and convincing the Taiwan government to invest half of the funds was Li’s problem. “Without his backing, Taiwan Semiconductor would not exist,” said Dr. Chang. “There would be no TSMC, if not for Li Kwoh-Ting”.

KT Li was instrumental in setting up Industrial Technology and Research Institute (ITRI), and Hsinchu Science Park in Taiwan. In 1970s, he consulted Frederick Terman (founder of US Silicon Valley) on “how Taiwan could emulate Silicon Valley’s success? Terman’s advice to Li was to use skilled Taiwanese immigrants in the US. Incidentally, TSMC CEO and vice chairman, CC Wei, succeeded Mark Liu, who retired in 2024.

Genius can uncover genius!
Long story short: It needs 'genius' to 'uncover genius'! It takes great strength, resolve, future vision, and determination to develop something unbeatable, like TSMC! KT Li was the godfather of technology in Taiwan! He was the ‘father’ of Taiwan’s economic miracle. He marked out Morris Chang as his successor! Just look at how the two of them have delivered!!

TSMC’s Dr. Chang, Tsai Ming-Kai of MediaTek, and brothers Jason and Richard Chang of ASE, are all from Taiwan. So are UMC founder and former chairman Robert Tsao, and Yeh Nan-Horng, founder and former chairman, Realtek. Winbond Electronics is controlled by the family of Arthur Yu-Cheng Chiao.

Powerchip has Frank Huang as its founder. Hon Hai Technology Group or Foxconn was founded by Terry Gou. Inventec was founded by Kou-I Yeh. Rock Hsu is chairman at Compal. Simon Lin is chairman at Wistron. Raymond Soong is founder and chairman at Liteon Group. AUO has Frank Ko as CEO.

All of these companies — TSMC, ASE, UMC, Realtek, Winbond, Powerchip, AUO, Hon Hai, Inventec, Compal, Wistron, Liteon, MediaTek, are among the most elite companies of the world. Really, there are no prizes for guessing how Taiwan has built itself, and its brand, into a silicon island!

Korean delight!
Likewise, Dr. Kim Choong-Ki, emeritus professor, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), was first in South Korea to teach semiconductor engineering. Look at where the likes of Samsung and SK hynix have reached today!

'Traitorous eight!'
For the record, William Bradford Shockley Jr. is said to be the father of semiconductors in the USA. Later, the famous, so-called “traitorous eight”, resigned from Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory after Shockley decided not to continue research into silicon-based semiconductors. 

For those unaware, the "traitorous eight" were: Julius Blank, Victor Grinich, Jean Hoerni, Eugene Kleiner, Jay Last, Gordon Moore, Robert Noyce, and Sheldon Roberts. In August 1957, they finally reached an agreement with Sherman Fairchild, and Fairchild Semiconductor was born. 

Intel and Moore's Law
Very interestingly, Intel was formed on July 18, 1968, by semiconductor pioneers, Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce, along with investor Arthur Rock, and is associated with the executive leadership and vision of Andrew Grove. 

Gordon Moore later went on to define Moore’s Law, in 1975! At the 1975 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting, Moore revised his forecast rate, predicting that semiconductor complexity would continue to double annually until about 1980, after which it would decrease to a rate of doubling approximately every two years. Moore's Law is the observation that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years.

Finally, again, for the record, Jun-ichi Nishizawa is considered to be the father of microelectronics in Japan. Shuji Nakamura is a Japanese-born American electronic engineer and inventor of the blue LED. Well, it definitely pays to know your history! 😉