Morris Chang, the founder of TSMC, attended the opening ceremony of the global R&D center yesterday, and paid special tribute to TSMC’s R&D and operation personnel, and said: “Because of your contributions to TSMC, you have made great contributions to the world’s semiconductor industry and the world economy. , and because of your contributions, TSMC has become a battleground for military strategists!"
Morris Chang also congratulated TSMC's R&D team for working hard for more than 30 years, and finally had his own home. However, he quoted a story in his autobiography, saying that the British Navy was very powerful in the 19th century, and it was only in the 20th century that the Admiralty was built. The building later went downhill. He encouraged TSMC's R&D team not to follow the path of the British Navy.
In Morris Chang's speech, he thanked TSMC's R&D team for their significant contributions to TSMC, the semiconductor industry, and the global economy, and for making TSMC a must-have for military strategists. He then said humorously: "I don't know whether it should be for this, thank you."
Morris Chang also shared with the on-site business people and R&D personnel his two basic concepts of establishing TSMC, including "technical independence" and "close cooperation between R&D and operations."
Morris Chang lamented that many technology companies in Taiwan do not have independent technology. TSMC also faced temptation for a time: Philips proposed to use technology as a stock, tempting TSMC to use their technology to authorize each other's development, but TSMC firmly refused. Enjoy the protection of patent rights and the parasol protection of silicon intellectual property, and avoid the turmoil of patent rights.
Morris Chang said that it has been a long road for TSMC to go from technological independence to technological leadership. After almost 30 years, it was not until seven nanometers that it could confidently say that it is technologically leading. It is a huge task to establish R&D.
Morris Chang mentioned that TSMC's annual R&D expenses accounted for about 8% of its revenue, which has been maintained for more than 20 years. Last year, R&D expenses reached about 5.5 billion U.S. dollars, compared with MIT's 2 billion U.S. dollars for the whole year. The dollar budget is still high.
Morris Chang mentioned another important concept is "close cooperation between R&D and manufacturing", which is also the key to TSMC's success, just like the two vice presidents: Zhang Zongsheng, who is in charge of advanced technology and photomask engineering research and development, and Wang Yinglang, who is in charge of operations. Sitting together, the two are like twins, that is, R&D and operations work closely together.
Morris Chang went on to say that the TSMC R&D team has been wandering around the factories, and now they finally have a home, congratulations to them. He finally mentioned his own experience at Texas Instruments. At that time, the chairman of Texas Instruments recommended a book for his colleagues to read: the British Navy, which was once very powerful, began to decline after owning its own building. Morris Chang urged the R&D team not to follow the path of the British Navy.
