Taiwan Business in Brief – October 2017

REMINDER — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) Chairman Morris Chang. Photo: CNA

TSMC Morris Chang to Retire in 2018

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) Chairman Morris Chang, one of the most influential leaders in the global tech sector, announced that he will retire in June 2018. Chang, who came to Taiwan from the United States in the 1970s to head the Industrial Technology Research Institute, from which TSMC was eventually spun off to become the world’s leading contract chip foundry and Taiwan’s most important enterprise. TSMC partners with some of the world’s most prominent tech brands, including Apple, Nvidia and Qualcomm, and is a driving force in Taiwan’s tech exports. Chang, 86, was recently included in the Forbes list of the world’s 100 greatest living business minds and has received numerous other business accolades, as well as recognition for philanthropy.

In a statement, Chang called the past 30-odd years with TSMC “an extraordinarily exciting and happy phase of my life,” and said he now wants “to reserve my remaining years for myself and my family.”