United Microelectronics Corporation

By the mid 1980s, Taiwan was aggressively trying to bootstrap its own domestic semiconductor industry.

They had created a government-backed company called UMC, United Microelectronics Corporation.

And to give this venture some serious international credibility and heavy-hitting operational experience, the Taiwanese government successfully recruited Chang to come over and be the chairman.

So they bring in the ultimate heavy hitter.

Yep.

But it is an absolute disaster from a management perspective.

I mean, there is this massive escalating clash between Chang and UMC's general manager, a man named Kao Hsin Chang.

Oh, the friction between them was fundamental.

So they have to focus on something.

But seven years ago, before TSMC started the E3 spin-off, UMC.

UMC started as a foundry model.

as an idea model, but it didn't work very well because they tried to do a CPU.

They were sued by Intel, so they stopped.

Because only the other choice is IDM.

You have to have a product.

But what product to do? Because UMC already have a hard time to find a product.