We flew to Taiwan to interview TSMC Founder Morris Chang in a rare English interview. In fact, the last long-form video interview we could find was 17 years ago at the Computer History Museum… conducted by the one-and-only Jensen Huang! This episode came about after asking ourselves a version of the Jeff Bezos “regret minimization” question: what conversations would we most regret not having if the chance passed Acquired by? Dr. Chang was number one on our list, and thanks to a little help from Jensen himself, we’re so happy to make it happen.Dr. Chang shares the stories of a few crucial moments from TSMC’s history which have only been written about in his (currently Chinese-only) memoirs, including how TSMC won Apple’s iPhone and Mac chip business and a 2009 discrepancy with NVIDIA that almost jeopardized their relationship, and the lessons he took from them. We can’t think of a better way to kick off 2025. Please enjoy!Sponsors:Many thanks to our fantastic Spring ‘25 Season partners:J.P. Morgan PaymentsServiceNowFundriseLinks:Worldly Partners’ Multi-Decade TSMC StudyKarina Bao’s writingCarve Outs:AAADefunctlandEverything Everywhere all at OnceAsianometryMore Acquired:Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store!Notes: This episode contains a paid endorsement for Fundrise. All investments can lead to loss. Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.
Full Episode
The podcast about great technology companies and the stories and playbooks. No, no, you said technology. Now we definitely have a cold opening. All right. I guess I really want us to be about technology companies again. Well, this is a technology company. It's a sign. All right, here we go.
Who got the truth? Is it you, is it you, is it you? Who got the truth now, though? Is it you? Is it you? Is it you? Sit me down. Say it straight. Another story on the way.
Welcome to the spring 2025 season of Acquired, the podcast about great companies and the stories and playbooks behind them. I'm Ben Gilbert.
I'm David Rosenthal.
And we are your hosts. Today, we have something very special to share with you. After becoming obsessed with semiconductors from our TSMC episode four years ago, David and I wound our way through the rest of the industry, studying fabulous companies like NVIDIA and Qualcomm, architecture companies like Arm, and chip design software companies like Synopsys.
And as we were thinking, what's next in the world of chips unacquired, we threw the Hail Mary. We asked friend of the show, Jensen Huang, if he would ask Dr. Morris Chang, the 93-year-old founder of TSMC, if he would be open to an interview with us.
It is kind of insane and super cool that Jensen made time to help us with this. It's not like he doesn't have a lot of other things going on.
Yes. Well, listeners, it happened. So today's episode is a conversation that we recorded in Taipei last week at Dr. Chang's office. We flew to Taiwan for a 48-hour whirlwind where we spent some time at TSMC's headquarters in Hinshu Science Park, where many of TSMC's fabs are located.
Super cool to see.
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