When you think of chips, what brand does everyone think of? In addition to Intel, there is also such a chip company, specifically for other companies to make chips, to achieve the world's first, this company is "TSMC". The founder of TSMC is Zhang Zhongmou, who was 56 years old when he started his business, although it was later than Ren Zhengfei, but as early as 2017, the market share of "TSMC" was 56%.
"Gamble gas" into the semiconductor industry
Born in 1931 in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, Zhang Zhongmou entered Harvard University at the age of 18 and transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology the following year to obtain a master's degree. However, when he applied for a doctorate, he was rejected twice, which made him quite devastated. With a sense of shame, he decided to work for a big company with high fame.
At that time, he was hired by two companies, namely ford in the United States and another lesser-known semiconductor company "Xivania". Zhang Zhongmou originally wanted to go to Ford, but the starting salary of "Xivania" was $1 higher than Ford, and he and Ford's manpower proposed to increase the starting salary, but they did not expect that Ford's manpower rejected him mercilessly. His self-esteem was damaged again, and he decided to bid farewell to Ford and chose "Xivania".
Zhang Zhongmou studied mechanical engineering at MIT, and he knew nothing about semiconductors for the first time, but his learning ability was very strong, and he quickly became familiar with the knowledge of semiconductors while working. In 1958, he joined Texas Instruments and became the company's first Chinese employee.
For technology companies, the latest cutting-edge knowledge is always necessary. Texas Instruments was very loyal and fully supported him to go to Stanford University for his Ph.D. and pay the full tuition. This time he finally fulfilled his "doctor dream"! In 1972, Zhang Zhongmou was successively appointed vice president and senior vice president of Texas Instruments, leading Texas Instruments to the world's first.
The concept is not compatible, and he ran away at the age of 56 to start a business
Later, Texas Instruments formulated a strategy for transformation, and Zhang Zhongmou always believed that semiconductors had more room for development and gradually deviated from the concept of high-level. In 1983, he chose to leave the company where he had devoted most of his time. After leaving, he has been thinking about where he should go, and there are many positions of relevant corporate executives waiting for him, but for him, all this seems to be nothing new.
In 1987, the 56-year-old Zhang Zhongmou decided to start a semiconductor company by himself, named "TSMC", when semiconductor companies were design and manufacturing integrated, because semiconductor technology is highly confidential, design requires a lot of money, and manufacturing at the same time requires a lot of manpower, so it is very difficult to get a piece of the pie in this industry.
Zhang Zhongmou, with his years of hard work in the semiconductor industry, wants to create a semiconductor company that specializes in "OEM" for other companies. This idea was regarded by many people as a "bad idea" at the time, and no one was optimistic at all, but he firmly believed in his choice. The early days were tough, with few technicians and orders. In order to survive, Zhang Zhongmou racked his brains and finally got an order from Intel. With Intel's certification, TSMC has finally opened up the market completely.
Married to his secretary at the age of 70
In 2001, Zhang Zhongmou married his secretary Zhang Shufen, who was 13 years younger than himself. The wedding was widely watched, when he was 70 years old, it was a rare year, and many people said that they were not optimistic about the marriage.
In the face of rumors from the outside world, Zhang Zhongmou did not care at all, he said that his wife had accompanied him for many years, and he wanted to give an account to the people around him. In terms of love, no one can stop him from being reckless. In 2017, TSMC's market capitalization exceeded $220 billion and its net profit was 80 billion, twice that of Huawei in the same period.
Zhang Zhongmou started a business at the age of 56 and retired at the age of 86, and spent 30 years to develop TSMC into the world's largest semiconductor production company, and finally became a winner in life. As of January 6, TSMC's market capitalization has reached $668 billion, or about 4,263.3 billion yuan.
Some people are young and promising, and some people are late, Zhang Zhongmou's experience tells us that as long as we accumulate good experience and want to start a business, age is not the deciding factor. Today, there is such a shortage of chips, and the future development of TSMC is still very impressive.