Morris Chang said, “TSMC was originally an obscure company without an optimistic outlook. Upon starting the company we only had US$22,000 in assets; however, our market value has now reached US$180 billion. This is quite an achievement.”

“We created a new business model which was devastating and destructive to the competition. We first began doing business in 1987, and at the time nobody believed that TSMC had any real status. Now TSMC holds a key position in the semiconductor industry, and I believe TSMC has made a considerable contribution to this industry,” said Morris Chang.

Morris Chang went on to state, “When we first began we only had just over one hundred employees, and the employee benefits were about average for the employees in Taiwan at the time. We now employee forty-four thousand workers with employee benefits which far exceed those of the average worker in Taiwan. These forty-four thousand people also enjoy the living standards of approximately one-hundred fifty thousand people as a result of TSMC's significant improvements, and I see this as an accomplishment.”

In addition, Morris Chang also believes that TSMC has increased the speed of progress in the semiconductor industry. He pointed out that of the many yearly innovations in the semiconductor industry, the vast majority are invented by fabless semiconductor companies. However, if it were not for TSMC there would not be so many fabless semiconductor companies in existence and there definitely would not be so many innovations.

“If TSMC had not existed, then smart phones would not have come out as early as they did. This is just another example of how billions of people's lives were changed around the world,” stated Morris Chang.

(TR/ Phil Sweeney)