Morris Chang’s Autobiography

The memoir of TSMC’s founder, published in two volumes: the first in 1998, covering his birth in mainland China through his years at Texas Instruments, and the second in November 2024, covering the rest — General Instrument, the move to Taiwan, and the founding and building of the pure-play foundry that now makes most of the world’s advanced chips. Both volumes exist only in Chinese; there is no official English edition, and the page count and publication details of the 2024 second volume were not verified for this card. The English-reading route in is unofficial: Brian Potter translated the work and published it, and Karina Bao has published a separate non-commercial chapter translation.

Why it’s on the list: The founder’s own account of building the most strategically important company in the world, and one of the few major business memoirs that has never had an English publisher.

Where I saw it: @tylercosgrove’s October 15, 2025 list of 25 books he offered to send to Jared Kushner. The recommendation is presumably to the translation, since no English edition has ever been published.

Connections

• Morris Chang — the author and subject.
• TSMC — the company the second volume is about.
• Semiconductors — the industry he reorganised with the pure-play foundry model.
• Taiwan — where he went to build it, and why the book matters strategically.