Mar 16, Taipei | At the CommonWealth semiconductor forum, TSMC founder Morris Chang reiterated the importance of Taiwan as a major force in semiconductor manufacturing, and stressed that the growing trend of diversification of chip making would result in higher costs of chips and therefore slow down the development of the industry. 

“The key reason that semiconductors have become so ubiquitous was because it has become much cheaper compared with in the 1950s,” the 91-year-old Chang said. 

“Work culture matters,” he went on to say. “There is a concentration of chip manufacturing in a few countries because they are competitive in what they are doing. For example, the US has excellent design capability because they are close to the market’s needs. On the other hand, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea have the competitive advantage in manufacturing. It’s the work cultures in those cultures that matter,” Chang said. 

Chris Miller, Associate Professor of International History at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, gave a brief speech on how TSMC became the most important chipmaker in the world, followed by an hour-long dialogue with Chang, moderated by CommonWealth chairperson Yinchuen Wu. 

Morris Chang and Chris Miller (Source: Ming-Tang Huang)

“There’s going to be more bifurcation in chip manufacturing,” Miller said. “More and more countries are trying to become bigger players in the chip industry. However, there is a lot of concentration of technologies in a few key countries, so if the map is going to shift, it will happen rather slowly,” he added.  

Morris Chang also voiced criticism of the growing trend of “friendshoring”, a trade practice where supply chain networks are focused on countries regarded as political and economic allies. He pointed out that the fact that Taiwan is not one of the friendshoring destinations doesn't make much sense. 

In his first public appearance after registering to run in the DPP presidential primary, Vice President William Lai Ching-te stressed the importance of peace and confidence in the world’s leaders to protect peace. 

“The world’s development needs TSMC, and democracy is like sunlight and water to TSMC. Without democracy, TSMC can not sustain,” Lai said in his opening remarks. “There is no winner in war; I hope that the democratic camp of the world would cherish the achievements of TSMC, value the democracy in Taiwan, and work together to maintain peace and security, which is also in the common interest of Taiwan, TSMC and the world.”

William Lai, the vice president of Taiwan (Source: Ming-Tang Huang)

The event taking place in Shangri-La Hotel in downtown Taipei attracted an audience of over 300. 35% of the attendees were senior executives from the semiconductor supply chain and SEMI, an industry association comprising companies involved in the electronics design and manufacturing supply chain.

Also among the attendees were members of the diplomatic corps based in Taipei, from countries including Canada, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, South Korea, and the U.S.

The unprecedented summit also had an online audience of over 800. Among them were 300 students from Taiwan's top four universities, namely National Cheng Kung University, National Taiwan University, Tsinghua University, and National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University.

“Chris Miller’s new book “Chip War” did a thorough analysis on how Morris and his team “Taiwanised” the chip industry. And he reminded me and most Taiwanese and the rest of the world that Morris is the most “underrated” entrepreneur of the world,” said CommonWealth Magazine Chairperson Yinchuen Wu in her opening remarks at the event.  

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About Morris Chang:

Morris Chang (張忠謀) is a Taiwanese-American businessman. He is the founder, as well as former chairman and CEO, of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the largest. Headquartered in Hsinchu, TSMC is a Taiwanese multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company. It is the world's most valuable semiconductor company, the world's largest dedicated independent (pure-play) semiconductor foundry, and one of Taiwan's largest companies. 

About Chris Miller:

Christopher Miller is an Associate Professor of International History at The Fletcher School at Tufts University and the author of Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology. 

The complex Chinese version of his book is published by CommonWealth Magazine Book Publishing in Taipei Mar 1, 2023. Link: https://shop.cwbook.com.tw/SalePage/Index/8569068 

Accolades of his book include: 

• Financial Times Business Book of the Year

• An Economist Best Book of the Year

• New York Times Bestseller

• Winner 2023 PROSE Award for Outstanding Work by a Trade Publisher

• Shortlisted for the Lionel Gelber Prize

About CommonWealth Magazine

Founded in 1981 by Diane Ying (殷允芃), a veteran journalist, CommonWealth Magazine is Taiwan’s most influential political-economic magazine. In 2007, CommonWealth Magazine became Taiwan’s first financial media outlet to launch an English-language website. According to the Reuters Institute’s 2022 Digital News Report, CommonWealth Magazine is the most trusted media outlet in Taiwan. For more information please visit https://www.cw.com.tw/ and https://english.cw.com.tw/  

Media contact:

Nicole Chen 
Brand Manager of CommonWealth Magazine
+886 955 976 288

n[email protected] 

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Have you read?

• Exclusive: Chris Miller on how the Cold War became the Chip War  
• Taiwan’s chip future hanging on TSMC’s 2nd US go-round 
• TSMC's U.S. tool-in ceremony is over, what’s next? 

Uploaded by Ian Huang