TSMC’s Chang, known as father of Taiwan’s chip industry, to retire

TAIPEI — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) founder and chairman Morris Chang will retire in June, after having built the Apple, Inc. supplier into the world’s biggest foundry chipmaker with a market value of about $185 billion.

Mr. Chang, who is 86 and is known as the father of Taiwan’s chip industry, will be succeeded as chairman by Mark Liu who has been co-CEO (chief executive officer) along with C.C. Wei since 2013, TSMC announced on Monday. Mr. Wei will become the sole CEO.

The change in leadership comes at a critical time as TSMC, which has thrived on booming demand for chips used in smartphones, now seeks to diversify its customer base and move into emerging industries such as artificial intelligence and autonomous driving.

It must also deal with a growing threat from Samsung Electronics, the world’s top memory chipmaker, which plans to triple the market share of its contract chip manufacturing business within the next five years by aggressively adding clients.

The succession plan has been in the works for years. Mr. Liu and Mr. Wei have held complementary posts since 2012 when they were chief operating officers before assuming co-CEO roles in 2013. Previously, they were senior vice presidents — Mr. Wei for business development and Mr. Liu for operations.

Mr. Liu studied electrical engineering and computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. Mr. Wei studied electrical engineering in Yale University. Both Mr. Liu and Mr. Wei have doctorates.

Mr. Chang, citing personal and family reasons, said that upon his retirement, he would not sit on the board of directors or participate in management activities.

He founded TSMC in 1987 with paid-in capital of T$1.4 billion ($45 million) and pioneered contract chip manufacturing for chip design firms which don’t have their own factories. He has been its chairman since then.

Mr. Chang spent 25 years at Texas Instruments and holds a doctorate from Stanford. Born in China, he went to Taiwan in 1985 after being recruited by the government to head a body promoting industrial and technological development.

TSMC has since grown to command 56% of the $ 47- billion market while revenue has climbed to around $30 billion in 2016. —