It’s human nature to suck up. Most people are eager to flatter celebrities or those who are rich and powerful in society. It takes a lot of courage to tell the truth.
TSMC’s original shareholders
Morris Chang mentioned in the second volume of his autobiography: TSMC’s total share capital is US$145 million, with Philips contributing 27.6% and the Executive Yuan Development Fund contributing 48.3%.
The remaining shareholders include Formosa Plastics with a 5% stake, China-US Plastics with a 5% stake, China-Guangzhou Plastics and related businesses with a 3% stake, Formosa Plastics with a 2% stake, Yaohua Glass with a 2% stake, United Petrochemical with a 1% stake, Taiyuan Textile with a 1% stake, and Chengzhou Plastics with a 1% stake. Electronic 1%. Morris Chang pointed out that Philips sold all its shares in TSMC in August 2008 and estimated that it would recover 135 times its capital in 21 years.
Many Countries Subsidize TSMC
3 countries subsidized TSMC NT$200B
Mr. Chen Tianzhi, who has served in various important government positions in Taiwan, including Chairman of the National Development Council, Chairman of the Executive Yuan Economic Construction Commission, and Executive Yuan Minister, was quoted in the media on December 27, 2024.
Biden is about to step down, and he quickly agreed with TSMC on a subsidy of US$6.6 billion. The European Union also agreed to provide TSMC with a 5 billion euro subsidy for its investment in Germany, and Japan confirmed that it would provide TSMC with two amounts of approximately 1 trillion yen.
The subsidies provided to TSMC by these three countries are approximately NT$200 billion. Chen Tianzhi said: “I have never seen such a number in all the historical data of companies that have been subsidized by the Republic of China government!”
Taiwan and China’s subsidies to TSMC not included
Please note: The NT$200 billion figure does not include the huge subsidies provided by the Chinese government to TSMC, nor does it include indirect subsidies or benefits from the Taiwan government’s various tax breaks, semiconductor industry, R&D, etc. since TSMC founded–If we count from the time TSMC was founded to the present day, that would be another staggering number.
For example, the Taiwan government announced that the sub-regulation of Article 10-2 of the Industrial Innovation Act, “Investment deduction method for companies’ forward-looking innovative research and development and advanced process equipment expenditures”, will be applicable from January 2023: it is described by the industry as the “Taiwan version of the Chips Act” clearly states that if the R&D expenses reach NT$6 billion and account for 6% of the operating income, and the expenditure on the purchase of equipment for advanced processes reaches NT$10 billion, company can apply for a 25% R&D investment deduction or 5% equipment investment credit.
TSMC’s financial report pointed out that it received NT$827 million and NT$7.051 billion in government subsidies from the Japanese and Chinese governments in 2021 and 2022, and another NT$47.545 billion in government subsidies in 2023. In the first three quarters of 2024, TSMC received NT$16.043 billion in subsidies from the U.S., Japanese and Chinese governments (the United States finalized a US$6.6 billion subsidy for TSMC); since 2021, TSMC has received a total of NT$71.466 billion in government subsidies.
China’s subsidy policy adopted by US and its allies
Western countries led by the United States, including Taiwan, often justify their actions of containing China, imposing embargoes or sanctions on China when they cannot compete with China in any industry, and have repeatedly criticized China’s industrial subsidy policies.
But whether they like it or not, aren’t the facts that what these countries are doing are actually learning from China’s “national system” and industrial subsidy policies?
“Now the new model seems to be China.” And what the United States, Japan or Germany are doing is actually a replica of mainland China’s policies, “very ironic.”
Personal cultivation criticized
Not Drink water and remember its source
It looks like he doesn’t know how to remember the source of water he drank.
Initially, Taiwan government invested only NT$5.5 billion in TSMC, accounting for about 48% of the shares. This is why TSMC founder Morris Chang later said that the government only invested a small amount of money.
Anyone who understands Chinese and does not violate his conscience should feel that Morris Chang’s remarks are typical of taking advantage of others:
- The degree of support that original shareholders give to the business they founded cannot be measured by the amount of money they invest.
- NT$5.5 billion was a huge sum of money in 1987, and decades of inflation have only made this amount even larger. Please note that the Taiwanese government was not as rich as it is now.
In any startup, investing 48% is a huge bet.
In 1987, the exchange rate was 31.77 and Taiwan’s GDP was US$105.04 billion, equivalent to NT$333.7121 billion. Therefore, the NT$5.5 billion that year was equal to 0.165% of Taiwan’s annual GDP! This is a huge sum of money! How could it be just a little money?
Note: Please see my post of “Morris Chang refuted by Yeh Wanan, Taiwan was unwilling to invest in TSMC” to know the history about this topic.
Show off his American citizenship whenever possible
He was born in Ningbo, China, but has always been proud of his American identity. Although most people know that Morris Chang has multiple citizenships and holds an American passport, these are facts. But what I want to talk about is that when Morris Chang was interviewed by influential foreign media, he repeatedly emphasized that he is an American, which has a lot of implied meaning.
Note: Before Morris Chang came to Taiwan and joined ITRI, he had no connection with Taiwan.
In public interviews, he mentioned more than once that being an American is the most important identity label in his eyes: “Since I came to the United States and became a naturalized citizen in 1962, my identity has always been an American. There is nothing else.”
In a speech at the TSMC Arizona factory ceremony in 2022, Morris Chang emphasized, “I am from the United States, and my dream is to build a wafer fab in the United States.”
What is even more absurd is that Taiwan has appointed a foreigner who keeps saying that he is an American for many years to represent the president at the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, one of the few times Taiwan can share the stage with world leaders.
Is it true that among the 23 million people in Taiwan, there is no other representative candidate who truly “only” has the nationality of the Republic of China? Do we have to send someone who claims everywhere that he is an American to represent Taiwan?
On September 24, 2025, Dr. Tsai Cheng-yuan recounted an incident on China Television’s “Big News, Big Gossip” program, detailing two things Morris Chang insisted on when the Taiwanese government invited him to Taiwan (note: not return to Taiwan, as Morris Chang does not hold ROC citizenship and has no ties to Taiwan at all).
Besides being fussy about his personal salary, he demanded that Taiwan government match his salary in the United States (see the report in China Time Weekly issue 1462 below). He also stubbornly refused to give up his American citizenship, as the position of president of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) was restricted to ROC nationals. Taiwan government finally accepted his terms. (Note: ITRI is a government agency under the Ministry of Economic Affairs of Taiwan.)
Note: Taiwan’s “Public Service Employment Act” states that anyone who has any of the following circumstances may not be employed as a public servant: 1. Not having or having lost the nationality of the Republic of China. 2. Having both the nationality of the Republic of China and the nationality of a foreign country.
Sartistic criticism on outstanding ex-employee
In an exclusive interview with Electronic Times, Morris Chang mentioned his views on Mong-Song Liang. Morris Chang believed that Mong-Song Liang was very loyal and good before he left TSMC. The only reason that made him feel that his good impression of him was discounted was that Liang was running around.
The problem is that Morris Chang himself only has a mouth to criticize others, but what about himself? Morris Chang himself admitted that when he graduated from school, he used the starting salary to decide which company to join. The number of companies that Morris Chang has changed jobs for is much greater than that of Liang Mengsong. This is clearly an act of allowing the officials to set fires while not allowing the common people to light lamps.
For Mong-Song Liang, please see my post of “Mong-Song Liang, the hero of SMIC’s breakthrough in US blockade“
Penny-pinching on salary
Morris Chang’s autobiography mentioned a past event: after graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Morris Chang gave up the promising Ford Motor Company at that time and chose to join the then unknown Sylvania Semiconductor, just because the latter gave him an extra salary of 10 yuan. When he asked Ford for a raise, he was rejected mercilessly: “It’s not your turn to bargain here.”
Ye Wan-an, an eyewitness who followed Li Kuo-ting for nearly 50 years and published “A Lifetime of Striving for Taiwan’s Economy”, restored history and also revealed that Morris Chang agreed to return to Taiwan from the United States to serve as the president of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), but the American-style monthly salary he requested was beyond the ITRI’s ability to afford. ITRI Chairman Fang Xianqi reluctantly reported this to Yu Kuo-hua, who immediately generously agreed to make up the difference from his special funds as Premier.
Chang insisted Taiwan to offer him TI package
China Times Weekly (CTW), issue 1462, published an anecdote from that time that perfectly captures Morris Chang’s lifelong obsession with penny-pinching on salary.
In 1982, Sun Yun-suan invited him back to Taiwan and offered him three positions to choose from. Morris Chang was only interested in becoming the president of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). Sun Yun-suan said, “You won’t be shortchanged in terms of compensation.” He explained that his salary at Texas Instruments would be divided into three parts: base salary, bonuses, and company stock options. Every time, Morris Chang would ask, “President Sun, you said you wanted me to avoid any loss. Will you add up all three parts?”
Pan Wen-yuan, assigned to lobby Morris Chang again, asked him directly, “How much do you earn in the United States?” After hearing his explanation, Pan Wen-yuan replied, “The base salary can be the same as yours in the United States. As for bonuses, they only count when the company makes money. Stock options are also out of the question because they don’t exist in Taiwan. It’s already very rare that President Sun can offer you such a salary.”
Mr. Chang wrote to Sun Yun-suan and Li Kuo-ting, carefully analyzing his income and frankly telling them that if he had returned to Taiwan at that time, he would have lost a lot of money. “It’s a huge amount,” he said frankly. He chose to return to Taiwan in 1985 because the stock option issue had been resolved.
TSMC made Morris Chang successful
Controversial corporate culture
Morris Chang publicly expressed his anti-union stance in 2016, and he reiterated it in 2022. He said one of the keys to the success of Google, Facebook, and Microsoft is that they have no unions. Such remarks are shocking. If such claims were made in the United States, they would cause a huge storm in the image of the companies. In fact, this is the main reason why TSMC’s labor-management relations in the United States continue to be tense. TSMC’s overall score on Glassdoor is only 3.1 (out of 5 points), so such a result is not surprising.
Note: Glassdoor is a well-known website for employees to evaluate the companies they work for. The overall score of 3.1 is the lowest score I have personally seen for large technology companies. This score is really “very, very low.”
Note: In fact, Morris Chang’s perception is not correct. Both Microsoft and Google have employee unions. Google employees are unionized through the Alphabet Workers Union (AWU): The AWU represents more than 1,400 employees at Google and other Alphabet companies, including full-time employees, temporary workers, vendors, and contractors. Microsoft has unions within its subsidiaries (such as Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax Media, Bethesda Game Studios), and recognizes unions in other countries (such as Germany and South Korea).
An ex-TSMC employee once posted on Taiwanese social network Dcard that he had left TSMC 12 years ago. The turning point of his departure was that he heard the founder Morris Chang talk about the “screw culture” one day. Chang also mentioned that the career planning of employees is the employees’ own business. ” These words made him determined to leave.
The American non-profit media “Rest of World” reported on TSMC’s difficulties in the United States, and was also reposted by the well-known technology media “The Verge“. It even mentioned: “TSMC was the worst possible place to work on Earth.”
TSMC chaiman Mark Liu shouted at the shareholders meeting on June 6, 2023: “TSMC has only one corporate culture, and core values must be followed. Those who are unwilling to be on duty should not participate in this industry.”
In an interview with the media CNN, Lora Ho, vice president of TSMC’s human resources department, said: “There’s earthquake, for example, I think all our engineers know need to go back to company soon, doesn’t matter what time it is, it’s midnight, they will come back.” Working overtime is still a fine tradition of TSMC. Data from 2022 showed that TSMC’s new employee turnover rate was as high as 17.6%, and the turnover rate of all employees was also as high as 6.8%.
For deep dive on controversial corporate culture, please see my post of “TSMC negative toxic corp culture and management style are detrimental to its future and growth“
Without stage provided by Taiwan, he is a nobody
In the second volume of Morris Chang’s autobiography, he mentioned that after leaving Texas Instruments, he resigned three times within five years, and finally “had no other way to go but to leave TSMC”!
When government officials “repeatedly” invited Morris Chang to come to Taiwan to help run the semiconductor company planned by the Taiwan government, Morris Chang himself was still watching. Later, as Morris Chang himself said, it was a choice he had no choice but to make when he was “at his wits’ end” and had no better way out.
If the Taiwan government had not helped establish TSMC and provided him with a platform for development, Morris Chang would now be just a retired passerby.
The idea of founding TSMC did not come from Morris Chang. A more accurate description would be that Morris Chang was simply a professional hired by the Taiwanese government at the time to lead the semiconductor company founded by the Taiwanese state. For this history, please read my post of “How was TSMC originally founded? Not by Morris Chang“
Closing words
In psychology, there is a so-called halo effect. TSMC’s current success is largely due to the foresight of Taiwan’s economic bureaucrats at the time, as well as the unlimited support of the entire Taiwanese people and government. Morris Chang certainly has made contributions, but the credit does not belong to him alone.
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