TSMC founder Morris Chang

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 Payments
https://bit.ly/acquiredJPMPmorrisyt

ServiceNow
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Fundrise
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Links:

Worldly Partners’ Multi-Decade TSMC Study
https://worldlypartners.com/businessh...

Karina Bao's writing
https://karinabao.substack.com/

Carve Outs:

AAA
https://www.aaa.com

Defunctland
   / defunctland  

Everything Everywhere all at Once
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6710474/

Asianometry
   / asianometry  

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0:00 - Intro
3:22 - TSMC and Nvidia's relationship
9:50 - The 40nm node development problem in 2009
20:55 - The TSMC Laid Off Employee Protest
26:16 - TSMC's Incredible Core Business vs. Expansions
29:08 - Resolving the 2009 NVIDIA dispute
35:59 - TSMC's commitment to 28nm
43:04 - Going all-in on the 28nm node
52:05 - Meeting Apple and Jeff Williams
1:23:09 - Goldman Sachs
1:34:57 - ServiceNow
1:36:01 - Intel's and Apple
1:46:45 - Apple’s and the 20nm node
1:47:58 - Pricing
1:50:24 - Apple and trade-offs
1:55:22 - The IBM-Qualcomm story
2:02:18 - The Learning Curve
2:10:45 - The Flywheel of Returns
2:14:18 - TSMC’s Unexpected(?) Success
2:15:57 - The early days of TSMC
2:21:10 - Ben and David's Reflections
2:27:43 - Taiwanese Science Park
2:47:08 - Carve Outs

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.