logo
episode-header-image
Jan 2025
2h 54m

TSMC Founder Morris Chang

Ben Gilbert And David Rosenthal
About this episode

We flew to Taiwan to interview TSMC Founder Morris Chang in a rare English interview. In fact, the last long-form video interview we could find was 17 years ago at the Computer History Museum… conducted by the one-and-only Jensen Huang! This episode came about after asking ourselves a version of the Jeff Bezos “regret minimization” question: what conversations would we most regret not having if the chance passed Acquired by? Dr. Chang was number one on our list, and thanks to a little help from Jensen himself, we’re so happy to make it happen.


Dr. Chang shares the stories of a few crucial moments from TSMC’s history which have only been written about in his (currently Chinese-only) memoirs, including how TSMC won Apple’s iPhone and Mac chip business and a 2009 discrepancy with NVIDIA that almost jeopardized their relationship, and the lessons he took from them. We can’t think of a better way to kick off 2025. Please enjoy!


Sponsors:

Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25
Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig25
ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsn

Links:

Carve Outs:


More Acquired!

© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLC

Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Up next
Oct 6
Google: The AI Company
Google faces the greatest innovator's dilemma in history. They invented the Transformer — the breakthrough technology powering every modern AI system from ChatGPT to Claude (and, of course, Gemini). They employed nearly all the top AI talent: Ilya Sutskever, Geoff Hinton, Demis H ... Show More
4h 6m
Aug 26
Alphabet Inc.
In its first six years from 1998 to 2004, Google built one of the greatest products of all time (and certainly the greatest business of all time) with Search. Then in its next six years from 2005 to 2011, Google built seven (!) more billion+ user products: Gmail, Maps, Drive and ... Show More
4h 11m
Jul 16
The Jamie Dimon Interview
We sit down with Jamie Dimon for a live conversation at Radio City Music Hall, covering the incredible journey from his 1998 firing at Citgroup (where he was widely expected to become CEO) to building the most powerful bank in the world. Today JPMorgan Chase is a juggernaut — the ... Show More
1h 6m
Recommended Episodes
Jan 2025
How Nvidia Changed the World
There’s more to the legendary chipmaker than its tech stack. Tae Kim is a Senior Technology writer at Barron’s and author of the new book, “The Nvidia Way.” Best-selling author Morgan Housel interviews Kim for a conversation about:- The early days at Nvidia and its long path to “ ... Show More
30m 40s
Mar 2025
TIP704: The Nvidia Way w/ Tae Kim
On today’s episode, Clay is joined by Tae Kim to discuss his new book, The Nvidia Way, which outlines the making of one of the greatest tech businesses in the world. Nvidia is the darling of the age of artificial intelligence as its chips are powering the generative-AI revolution ... Show More
1h 10m
Sep 2024
TIP660: Mastermind Q3, 2024 w/ Stig Brodersen, Tobias Carlisle and Hari Ramachandra
In today's episode, Stig Brodersen speaks to Tobias Carlisle and Hari Ramachandra. Stig only owns five individual stocks, and in this episode, he outlines why Betsson is one of them. Hari’s pick, Nintendo, is at an attractive spot in the console cycle, and Tobias pitches Virtu, a ... Show More
1h 33m
Mar 2025
Notion’s lost years, its near collapse during Covid, staying small to move fast, the joy and suffering of building horizontal, more | Ivan Zhao (CEO and co-founder)
Ivan Zhao is the co-founder and CEO of Notion. Ivan shares the untold story of Notion, from nearly running out of database space during Covid to finding product-market fit after several “lost years,” and the hard-won lessons along the way.—What you’ll learn:1. Why you sometimes n ... Show More
1h 12m
Sep 11
$46B of hard truths from Ben Horowitz: Why founders fail and why you need to run toward fear (a16z co-founder)
Ben Horowitz is the co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, Silicon Valley’s largest and most influential venture capital firm, with over $46B in committed capital across multiple funds. He took Loudcloud public with just $2 million in revenue (dubbed “the IPO from hell”), sold it for ... Show More
1h 37m
Nov 2023
29: The largest developer in LA, Rick Caruso
Rick Caruso’s real estate projects have defined how a generation of LA residents live in and experience the city. When you truly collaborate with communities, Rick explains, you get more than reliable financial success — you get momentum behind your project, you get political cap ... Show More
41m 50s
Apr 2025
Inside monday.com’s transformation: radical transparency, impact over output, and their path to $1B ARR | Daniel Lereya (Chief Product and Technology Officer)
Daniel Lereya, the Chief Product and Technology Officer at monday.com, shares how he and his team realized they were being outpaced by competitors and how that realization completely transformed how they operate and allowed them to build a global powerhouse, doing over $1 billion ... Show More
1h 32m
Sep 24
#828: David Senra — How Extreme Winners Think and Win: Lessons from 400+ of History’s Greatest Founders and Investors (Including Buffett, Munger, Rockefeller, Jobs, Ovitz, Zell, and Names You Don’t Know But Should)
David Senra is the host of the Founders podcast. For the past nine years, David has intensely studied the life and work of hundreds of history’s greatest entrepreneurs. His new podcast, David Senra, showcases conversations with the best-of-the-best living founders and extreme win ... Show More
2h 55m
Mar 2025
TIP703: Richer, Wiser, Happier Q1, 2025 w/ Stig Brodersen & William Green
On today’s show, Stig Brodersen talks with co-host William Green, the author of “Richer, Wiser, Happier.” In their quest for meaningful relationships and being the best version of themselves, they discuss what has made them Richer, Wiser, or Happier in the past quarter. You’re in ... Show More
2h 10m
Mar 2025
Erika’s Top 5 Takeaways | The Perfect Pitch Podcast 2024 Recap
Lucidity Insights wrapped up its debut The Perfect Pitch podcast season in 2024, offering actionable advice to aspiring entrepreneurs. Erika Welch shared her top 5 takeaways from conversations with the Middle East and Africa's most influential investors: not every business i ... Show More
5m 43s