Chang was born in the city of Ningbo, situated within Chekiang in China, in 1931. When he was young, he wanted to become a novelist or journalist, though his father persuaded him otherwise.[3] The elder Chang was an official in charge of finance for the Yin county government and later a bank manager.[6] Due to his father's career and the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945),[7] the Chang family moved to Nanjing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Chongqing and Shanghai.
In 1949, Chang moved to the United States to attend Harvard University. He transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in his sophomore year[8] and received his bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering from MIT in 1952 and 1953, respectively, and a Master of Engineering in 1955.[9] Chang failed two consecutive doctoral qualification examinations and eventually left MIT without obtaining a PhD.[6] In 1955, he turned down a job offer from Ford Motor Company and joined Sylvania Semiconductor, then known as a small semiconductor division of Sylvania Electric Products.[10] He was tasked with improving germanium transistor yields, besides device development.[3]
Three years later, he moved to Texas Instruments in 1958, which was then rapidly rising in its field. After three years at TI, he rose to manager of the engineering section of the company. It was then, in 1961, that TI decided to invest in him by giving him the opportunity to obtain his PhD degree, which he received in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1964.[11]
Career
Chang worked on a four-transistor project for TI where the manufacturing was done by IBM. This was one of the early semiconductor foundry relationships. Also at TI, Chang pioneered the then controversial idea of pricing semiconductors "ahead of the cost curve", which meant sacrificing early profits ("short term") to gain market share and achieve manufacturing yields that would result in greater profits over an extended timeline ("long-term").[12][13]
During his 25-year career (1958–1983) at Texas Instruments, he rose up in the ranks to become the group vice president responsible for TI's worldwide semiconductor business.[14] In the late 1970s, when TI's focus turned to calculators, digital watches and home computers, Chang felt like his career focused on semiconductors was at a dead end at TI.[15]
In the early 1980s, while still at Texas Instruments, Chang witnessed TI's factory in Japan achieving twice the chip production yield as TI's factory in Texas.[15] Observing that the staff and technicians in Japan are better qualified and had lower turnover, and failing to recruit the same caliber of staff in the United States, he concluded that future of advanced manufacturing appeared to be in Asia.[15]
After he left General Instrument Corporation, Sun Yun-suan, Premier of the Republic of China (ROC), recruited him to become chairman and president of the Industrial Technology Research Institute in Taiwan, where the ROC government is now based, having lost the mainland.[17] This marked his return to the ROC, initially thought to last for a few years, three decades after he left during the chaotic Chinese Civil War mainly between the People's Republic of China and the ROC.[15]
As the head of a government-sponsored non-profit, he was in charge of promoting industrial and technological development in Taiwan. Chang founded TSMC in 1987 thanks to transfer of production technology and license of intellectual property from Philips in exchange for 27.6 percent equity and financing from the government's National Development Fund, Executive Yuan for 48.3 percent stake.[18][19] This is the beginning of the period where firms increasingly saw value in outsourcing their manufacturing capabilities to Asia. Soon, TSMC became one of the world's most profitable chip makers. Chang left ITRI in 1994 and became chairman of Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation from 1994 to 2003 while continuing to serve as chairman of TSMC. In 2005, he handed TSMC's CEO position to Rick Tsai.[20]
In June 2009, Chang returned to the position of TSMC's CEO once again.[21] The same year, Chang performed the role of Master Dragon in the first episode of “Let’s Go Guang!”, an animated Chinese-learning program for children.[22] In 2016, MIT named Building E52 the “Morris and Sophie Chang Building” in honor of Chang and his wife. Building E52 is the original home of the MIT Sloan School of Management and headquarters of the MIT Department of Economics.[23][24]
On June 5, 2018, Chang announced his retirement from TSMC, succeeded by C.C. Wei as CEO and Mark Liu as chairman.[25][26] Chang was awarded the Order of Propitious Clouds, First Class in September 2018.[27]
In an interview with the Brookings Institution in 2022, Chang said the US government’s efforts to increase onshore chip manufacturing by spending tens of billions dollars would be a very expensive and wasteful exercise in futility, the US would increase onshore semiconductor manufacturing somewhat at a very high cost, high unit costs, and non-competitive in the world market to compete with factories like TSMC. Chang said TSMC chairman Mark Liu decided to invest US$12 billion in Arizona at the urging of the US government.[34][35]
Chang met his first wife, Christine Chen, when he was at MIT and she was in Boston University. They married in 1952, when they were both 22 years old. They separated by the end of 1981 but did not divorce for the sake of their daughter, Chang Hsiao-lin, until 1991, shortly before she graduated from college.[36] Chang married his second wife, Sophie Chang, a cousin of Foxconn founder Terry Gou, in 2001.[37] He has two stepdaughters through his second marriage.[3]
1999, Exemplary Leadership Award from the Fabless Semiconductor Association (now Global Semiconductor Alliance), the first recipient of the award; now the award bears his name, "Dr. Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award"[46]
2007, Computer History Museum Fellow Award, for dramatically accelerating the production of semiconductor-based devices and systems by developing an independent semiconductor manufacturing foundry.[50]
^Sun, Lianggang; Vlasova, Evgenia; Harmsen, Peter. "Shanghai 1937 – Where World War II Began". SHANGHAI 1937: WHERE WORLD WAR II BEGAN. Retrieved 31 December 2020. When did World War II begin? Shanghai 1937: Where World War II Began answers that question in a way most audiences will find surprising. Americans might say December 7, 1941… The day the Japanese Imperial Navy attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. For Europeans, it was September 1, 1939… When Nazi Germany invaded Poland. But in China, people will tell you a different date. August 13, 1937.
^BUS, FRANCOIS FRANCIS (2020). L'EPOQUE OU LES PUCES FONT LEURS LOIS : histoire des semiconducteurs vecue de chez texas instruments. BOOKS ON DEMAND. ISBN9782322256853. OCLC1225066813.
^BUS, FRANCOIS FRANCIS (2020). L'EPOQUE OU LES PUCES FONT LEURS LOIS : histoire des semiconducteurs vecue de chez Texas Instruments. BOOKS ON DEMAND. ISBN9782322256853.
^"Members". Committee of 100. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
^"Kung fu novelist Jin Yong to receive honorary degree". Taipei City: Taipei Times. Central News Agency. 8 May 2007. Jin Yong will be one of three people to be awarded honorary doctorates in an event marking NCCU's 80th anniversary. The other two are Cloud Gate Dance Theater founder Lin Hwai-min (林懷民) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀).
^"Morris Chang Calls on Government to Cherish Local Industries". Kuomintang. 27 November 2011. President Ma Ying-jeou awarded the Order of Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon to 12 figures who had made long-term contributions to the country and society, including Morris Chang (張忠謀)
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