By promoting a white candidate over an Asian American, trillions of dollars shifted from America to Taiwan.
July 10, 1931: Morris Chang, the future founder of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), was born in Ningbo, China.
One promotion not only changed the course of one company. It changed the future of the entire industry.
Today, TSMC manufactures many of the world’s most advanced semiconductors. Its customers include companies like Apple, NVIDIA, AMD, Qualcomm, and Broadcom. If you have an iPhone, you’re using their product.
The company’s market value is measured in trillions of dollars, and its factories have become some of the most strategically important facilities on Earth.
TSMC’s dominance has made Taiwan the unquestioned leader of the world’s advanced semiconductor manufacturing industry.
Yet none of that was supposed to happen in Taiwan.
Rejected Twice
After immigrating to the United States, Morris Chang earned degrees from Harvard, MIT, and Stanford before joining Texas Instruments in 1958.
TSMC might not exist had he not been rejected from his “dream” PhD program.
In 1955, Chang had just earned his master’s in mechanical engineering from MIT. He had just one goal at this point: to continue at MIT for a PhD.
But he failed the qualifying exam. Not once, but twice.
“Forced” to enter the job market, Chang joined Sylvania Semiconductor and transitioned 3 years later to Texas Instruments, just as the semiconductor industry was taking off.
The Bamboo Ceiling
Over the next 25 years, he helped transform the company into one of the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturers, eventually rising to group vice president.
Many expected him to become Texas Instruments’ next chief executive.
Instead, the company’s board chose another executive, J. Fred Bucy, while Chang was reassigned to a less fulfilling staff role.
He later reflected that he had reached a “bamboo ceiling.” Despite decades of success, he believed he would never be given the opportunity to lead the company.
So in 1983, he left.
Invitation From Asia
In 1985, the Taiwanese government invited Chang to help modernize its technology industry. Two years later, he founded Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, better known as TSMC.
Rather than designing its own chips, TSMC focused on manufacturing chips for other companies, an idea many considered risky at the time. It would prove revolutionary.
Today, TSMC produces the majority of the world’s most advanced semiconductors. The company sits at the center of the global electronics supply chain, manufacturing chips that power everything from smartphones and artificial intelligence to automobiles and military systems.
It is known as the most valuable company in the industry.
A Costly Promotion
Looking back, one executive promotion at Texas Instruments became far more than an internal personnel decision.
Once the global leader in the semiconductor business, TI suffered massive business failures under Bucy’s “leadership.”
Just one year into his role, he was forced out and largely faded from the technology spotlight.
Today, TSMC is measured in trillions of dollars, while Taiwan has become the center of advanced semiconductor manufacturing.
Many historians and financial analysts view it as one of the most expensive corporate succession blunders in tech history.