NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang almost became CEO of TSMC

Jensen Huang from NVIDIA had the opportunity to lead TSMC but declined it. This incident was revealed in a biographical book about the founder of the Taiwanese chip manufacturer, Morris Chang.

Currently, NVIDIA is the most valuable company in the world by market capitalization and one of the largest companies globally in terms of sales. However, in 2013, NVIDIA was not yet a giant, and it was during that time that Morris Chang, the founder of TSMC, asked Jensen Huang if he was interested in becoming the CEO of TSMC. This is mentioned in Morris Chang’s biography.

After returning as CEO of TSMC in 2009 against the backdrop of global economic changes, rising costs to meet future demand, and Apple becoming a key client of TSMC, Morris Chang, who was then 82 years old, began considering successors. One option was to appoint a successful outsider. Jensen Huang appeared to be a strong candidate: at that time, he had built one of the largest companies controlling 60% of the global graphics card market, distributing products for data centers and consumer electronics.

Another option involved promoting someone from within the company. Chang was not particularly fond of this idea because he had to remove Rick Tsai, who led TSMC from 2005 to 2009, due to issues with the 40nm process technology and workforce management during the economic crisis.

Jensen Huang was not very keen on becoming the CEO of TSMC. In 2013, NVIDIA had launched its extremely popular Kepler graphics card lineup, promoted the Tegra line, introduced the Shield gaming console, and was successfully working with data centers. Confident in the future, Huang announced plans to build a large NVIDIA headquarters.

As a result, Chang had to resort to Plan B, which involved appointing C.C. Wei and Mark Liu as executive directors and establishing a "dual leadership system" in 2013. When Morris Chang stepped back from active work in 2018, Mark Liu became chairman of the board, while C.C. Wei took on the role of CEO.

At the end of 2023, Mark Liu decided to leave the company (reportedly due to delays with Fab 21 in Arizona), while C.C. Wei combined the roles of chairman and CEO. In TSMC, the chairman is responsible for business relationships and strategic directions, which, in Liu's case, meant expansion outside Taiwan in response to geopolitical challenges. Currently, C.C. Wei oversees everything from strategic initiatives and geopolitical challenges to business relations and daily operations.

Jensen Huang also serves as chairman and CEO of NVIDIA. His strategic vision regarding data centers and artificial intelligence has significantly contributed to NVIDIA becoming a top global company.

Source: Tom's Hardware