TSMC: Morris Chang's Rejected Foundry Pitch, 2nm Chips and Arizona Delays

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In 1986 Taiwan's government recruited industry veteran Morris Chang, then in his mid-50s, to build a domestic chip industry. Chang proposed a pure-play foundry that would manufacture chips for other companies and design none of its own. Texas Instruments and Intel turned him down, but Philips took a 27.6% stake for $58 million, transferred technology and supplied first CEO James E. Dykes, while the National Development Fund put up 48.3% of the startup capital and wealthy local families were pressed to cover a 20% shortfall. TSMC became the first foundry to bring 7nm and 5nm chips to market, began 3nm volume production in late 2022 and shifted to gate-all-around nanosheet transistors for 2nm chips in late 2025.

In 2025 TSMC reported $122.42 billion in revenue and over $55 billion in net income, and by mid-2026 it was the world's largest non-U.S. company by market value. Chip shortages and U.S.-China tension pushed it abroad: JASM in Kumamoto, Japan, with Sony and Denso; ESMC in Germany with Bosch, Infineon and NXP; and Arizona, where a $12 billion plan approved in 2020 grew to $265 billion in planned U.S. investment by July 2026, supported by $6.6 billion from the CHIPS Act. Construction in Arizona costs at least 50% more than in Taiwan, skilled workers are scarce, and volume production at the second Arizona plant slipped to 2027 or 2028.

• Berkshire Hathaway bought a $4.1 billion stake in late 2022 and sold 86% of it months later, citing geopolitical tensions.
• In October 2024 TSMC told the U.S. Commerce Department that one of its chips had reached a Huawei device through a proxy company.
• In August 2025 two current and six former employees were accused of taking 2nm trade secrets, and one former employee had gone to Tokyo Electron.
• In 2024 its Hsinchu fabs used over 150,000 tons of water a day, about 10% of the city's supply, and TSMC reclaims over 85% of its process water.
• In 2021 TSMC and Foxconn spent up to $175 million on 10 million BioNTech vaccines and donated them to Taiwan.