Morris Chang founded TSMC in 1987 and became known as the father of Taiwan's semiconductor industry.
Chang was born in Ningbo, China, in 1931 and later moved to the United States. He earned degrees from Harvard, MIT, and Stanford, then spent decades at Texas Instruments before returning to Taiwan.
With government support, Chang established Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company as the world's first dedicated semiconductor foundry. The model allowed customers to design chips without building their own fabrication plants, helping create the modern fabless semiconductor industry.
Chang retired as TSMC chairman in 2018, though he remained an influential figure in technology and Taiwan's economic history. He is sometimes confused with Jensen Huang, Nvidia's co-founder and CEO, or Lisa Su, AMD's chief executive; both are prominent semiconductor leaders but did not found TSMC.