The chip is the lifeblood of the country.

This small square has unexpectedly stuck the throat of countless cutting-edge industries in our country and become the Achilles heel of the science and technology giants.

In 2021, 36Kr Holdings launched the "Core Journey" series of industrial observation. This series will conduct a comprehensive and in-depth study of the upstream and downstream of the semiconductor industry, including manufacturing giants, equipment suppliers, material suppliers, and chip design companies that continue to break through the limits of Moore's Law. It is hoped that our content can provide some reference and reference for the Chinese industry which is plagued by "lack of core".

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd was deified.

In the context of trade frictions and global lack of cores, this Taiwan wafer factory in China has suddenly become the focus of the world, and its every move has been deconstructed and reread, becoming a well-known quotation truth.

This article will invite Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd off the altar, restore Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd's three important battles on the road of "sealing the gods", and restore how it attacked hardships step by step. After thousands of days and nights of struggle, it can finally come to today.

Brothers wrestle with each other for twenty years

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd's first enemy was the United Microelectronics of his compatriots with first milk.

United Microelectronics (United Microelectronics Corp) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd were also born in Taiwan's Industrial and Technical Research Institute. From its establishment in 1995 to around 2010, United Microelectronics Corp remained the second largest semiconductor foundry in the world, and launched three amazing blitzkrieg battles against Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd in 1997, 1999 and 2001, respectively.

Zhang Zhongmou, founder of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd, is 16 years older than Cao Xingcheng, founder of United Microelectronics Corp. Zhang Zhongmou studied at Harvard and MIT in the United States since he was a teenager, and rose all the way after joining Texas Instruments Inc. He not only sat on Texas Instruments Inc's top three in the world within 25 years, but also had close personal acquaintances with semiconductor divine figures such as Jack Kilby and Andrew Grove.

By contrast, Tsao Hsing-Cheng is a Taiwanese man born and bred. When he was studying in Taipei in his early years, Cao Xingcheng lived in a tin house with rickshaw pullers and saw all kinds of things in the world. After graduation, Cao Xingcheng became a civil servant of Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs, then transferred to the electronics department of Taiwan Industrial Research Institute, which was established recently, and was given the opportunity to go to the United States to study semiconductor technology in 1976.

After returning to Taiwan, coinciding with the establishment of United Microelectronics, Taiwan's first semiconductor factory, Cao Xingcheng volunteered to become the first deputy general manager of United Microelectronics, and was promoted to general manager within two years because of his outstanding achievements.

The differences in their growth experiences give them completely different personality characteristics. Chang Chung-mou is serious and calm, and has a preference for management talents with a background of studying abroad. Taiwan media evaluate him as "drinking red wine, smoking cigars, and making a gentleman's pie." On the other hand, Cao Xingcheng is eclectic, loyal, bold, extremely good at using financial leverage to kill and annex, and has the jianghu style of some great heroes in troubled times.

The two have been married for a long time, but they have also made a grudge for a long time. Who wants to say that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd is "the first enterprise in history to put forward the wafer foundry mode", Cao Xingcheng was the first to jump out and object.

In 1984, Cao Xingcheng, 37, issued a "expand United Microelectronics" proposal to Zhang Zhongmou in the United States, which not only discussed in detail the upcoming new era of integration of the semiconductor industry, but also put forward the concept of "wafer foundry" for the first time.

However, Zhang Zhongmou did not reply to Cao Xingcheng. The following year, Zhang Zhongmou, invited by Sun Yunkuo, the successor of Chiang Ching-kuo, left the United States to serve as president of Taiwan's Industrial Research Institute and became Cao Xingcheng's immediate boss.

To Cao Xingcheng's surprise, in the third year, Zhang Zhongmou unexpectedly announced the establishment of "the first wafer fab in history" Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd, in which there was no mention of Cao Xingcheng's proposal.

Cao Xingcheng's anger can be imagined. However, at this time, Zhang Zhongmou is not only the president of ITRI and chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd, but also the chairman of United Microelectronics and the direct leader of Cao Xingcheng. Cao Xingcheng complained that there was no way.

In 1991, after Cao Xingcheng finally signed a letter with other directors to remove Zhang Zhongmou as chairman, Cao Xingcheng publicly attacked Zhang Zhongmou's "plagiarism" and "embezzlement", but never received a response from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd or Zhang Zhongmou.

In an interview, Cao Xingcheng even said angrily, "at the beginning, maybe the government trusted people with white hair, so they gave it to Mr. Zhang, whose hair was whiter than mine." "

United Microelectronics Corp was founded in 1980, is Taiwan's earliest IDM manufacturer, chip design and manufacture of both hands. In July 1995, United Microelectronics Corp announced that he would divest all semiconductor design businesses and focus on wafer foundry. Since then, the famous MediaTek technology in the industry was spun off from United Microelectronics Corp at that time.

The wafer foundry model was put forward as early as more than a decade, which is evident from Cao Xingcheng's fierce judgment on the development of the industry. This person likes to read history, likes style and elegance, and is the best at playing go. His business means seem to be open and close, but in fact, he is accurate in calculation and works step by step.

In 1995, the United States regained the number one position in the semiconductor world, South Korea rose against the trend, and Japan was particularly defeated, and the global semiconductor industry entered a new cycle of tight production capacity, which was the best time for United Microelectronics Corp to announce that he would go all out to enter wafer foundry.

In order to compete with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd, who has been ahead for 8 years, Cao Xingcheng immediately thought of the differentiation strategy deeply bound with customers. From July to September, Cao Xingcheng joined forces with 11 IC design companies from the United States and Canada. under the huge capital operation of 3 billion US dollars, Liancheng, Lianrui and Lianjia wafer factories sprang up and became dependent on each other for a while.

This group style of large investment, large territory, and bundling of interests has since become United Microelectronics Corp's fist style.

In the next two years, United Microelectronics Corp continued to step in, mergers and acquisitions, equity participation, setting up factories, going to sea, poaching people to grab customers, pressing everywhere, so that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd was almost out of breath.

According to media reports, in June 1997, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd announced that he would spend NT $400 billion on capacity expansion, and United Microelectronics Corp immediately announced an increase of NT $500 billion for investment.

In August, United Rui, an 8-inch wafer foundry owned by United Microelectronics Corp, was officially put into operation, and its production capacity reached 30, 000 pieces the next month, and the prospect was so bright that when General Manager United Microelectronics Corp Xuan was interviewed by the Taiwan media in early October, once confidently announced to reporters-- "United Microelectronics Corp will kill Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd within two years!" "

However, just a few days later, in a two-and-a-half-hour fire, the brand-new Lianrui factory, with tens of billions of yuan of machinery and equipment, and tens of thousands of wafers still being processed on the production line, all went up in flames.

It is said that the fire was caused by careless construction by United Microelectronics Corp's contractor at that time. At that time, the whole Hsinchu Park was covered with black smoke clouds, burning the walls of the brand-new factory building.

According to hindsight statistics, the sudden fire caused United Microelectronics Corp to lose more than NT $10 billion directly, and more than NT $2 billion of orders could not be executed. What is more serious is that United Microelectronics Corp missed the excellent market of the global recovery of semiconductors, and the loss is inestimable.

Success requires strength, connections, and a little bit of luck.

Heaven does not follow people's wishes, but Cao Xingcheng insists on changing his fate against heaven.

Since 1998, United Microelectronics Corp has started a new round of M & A war. During this period, United Microelectronics Corp successively acquired a 15 per cent stake in Hetai Semiconductor and jointly invested US $3.6 billion with Infineon to build a new plant in Singapore.

In 1999, by virtue of his superb capital operation ability and amazing negotiation skills, Cao Xingcheng acquired 16 billion of the assets of Nippon Steel Semiconductor Company of Japan at an ultra-low price of NT $400 million, which shocked the entire semiconductor industry.

In the same year, Cao Xingcheng once again announced that United Microelectronics Corp will merge with its United Microelectronics Corp Sihu (Liancheng, Lianrui, Lianjia and Hetai) to form the "United Microelectronics Corp Group". After the merger, United Microelectronics Corp not only occupied more than 40% of the global wafer foundry market share, but also directly ranked third in the world, second only to Intel Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd.

In addition to the two-pronged approach of capacity and scale, United Microelectronics Corp is also advancing by leaps and bounds in technology. Historically, it is the first producer to import copper process wafers, the first to produce 12-inch wafers and the first 65nm chip, and the technology gap between it and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd is narrowing day by day, close to the first in the world.

In the two Blitzkrieg battles in 1997 and 1999, United Microelectronics Corp lost and won. In 2001, with China's accession to the WTO, the market space of 9.6 million square kilometers opened, and a huge demand for semiconductors poured into the market. Cao Xingcheng, who has a keen sense of smell, immediately realized that this was the opportunity for Liandian to overtake for many years.

"Chinese mainland is the only battlefield that can compete with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd. "Cao Xingcheng said excitedly.

However, at this time, the Taiwan authorities have been strictly controlling Taiwan chip manufacturers' investment in the mainland on the grounds of avoiding the outflow of advanced technology and employment opportunities.

In order to snatch this piece of fat, United Microelectronics Corp bypassed the Taiwan government and quickly reached a cooperation with Shanghai Beiling in April 2002, announcing the construction of an 8-inch fab in Shanghai Zhangjiang. In November, United Microelectronics Corp cleverly invested in a $1 billion 8-inch wafer factory called "Hejian Technology" with Wuxi Shanghua Semiconductor.

However, the following year, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd obtained the qualification to invest and build a factory in the mainland approved by the Taiwan government, but United Microelectronics Corp's approval has not come down for a long time, and the above cooperation can only be carried out in the form of "under-the-table cooperation."

If all goes well, United Microelectronics Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd will have their last life-and-death battle on the land of Chinese mainland. But just like the unexpected factory fire in 1997, fate once again played a small joke on Cao Xingcheng.

In 2004, the results of Taiwan's leadership election were announced, and Chen Shui-bian took office.

For many years, Cao Xingcheng has always advocated that the mainland and Taiwan should coexist peacefully, and he naturally opposed various measures taken by Chen Shui-bian in this election.

Cao Xingcheng is generous, always bold and outspoken in public, does not care about the evaluation of the outside world, naturally did not take the matter to heart.

Who would have thought that on the afternoon of February 15, 2005, on the seventh day of the Lunar New year, Taiwan's prosecutors suddenly dispatched more than 120 people to conduct lightning raids on the homes and offices of many United Microelectronics Corp executives, and said United Microelectronics Corp was suspected of providing illegal support to the mainland and warship technology.

Since then, the protracted "Harmony case" which has caused a sensation on both sides of the mainland has officially begun.

After United Microelectronics Corp was searched by the authorities, Cao Xingcheng issued open letters to employees and the media several times, each time more and more sharply, pointing out that the search was an act in which public power was misled. He even pointed out by name that the Science and Law Institute of Taiwan Jiaotong University, which is studying as prosecutor Chen Ronglin, is sponsored by competitor TSMC.

In the following year or so, United Microelectronics Corp was delayed again and again by the case and punished again and again. Cao Xingcheng's refusal to admit defeat has only led to greater crackdown by public power institutions, and the Taiwan authorities are determined to regard the "Harmony case" as a typical case of restricting cross-strait economic and trade cooperation, constantly harassing United Microelectronics Corp up and down.

In December 2005, United Microelectronics Corp's share price plunged sharply, and the company was clouded and foggy.

On December 29, 2005, just two days before the New year, Cao Xingcheng finally surrendered.

In order to save United Microelectronics, which he has worked so hard for for 20 years, Cao Xingcheng announced in an open letter that he has since resigned as chairman and director, severing all ties with United Microelectronics Corp.

A year later, Taiwan's Hsinchu District Court ruled that the prosecution against United Microelectronics Corp had not found out the situation in detail and had not been identified by a professional unit, and the court could not accept it as evidence. United Microelectronics Corp was not guilty and Cao Xingcheng was not guilty.

But after this battle, United Microelectronics Corp completely lost the family fortune to compete with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd for the top spot in the world, and announced in 2018 that he would give up the investment in advanced technology below 12nm and focus on mature markets.

From 1995 to 2005, United Microelectronics Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd struggled for 20 years and launched Blitzkrieg three times, but every time United Microelectronics Corp was about to catch up with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd, he was always stuck by other factors. This is bad luck, but it is also because United Microelectronics Corp has natural shortcomings in fields such as standardization and internationalization. Compared with United Microelectronics Corp, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd's management has a lot of "foreign style", most of which not only have doctoral degrees from overseas universities, but also have international chip giant executives.

Since then, Cao Xingcheng devoted himself to art collection and never asked about business again.

During the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, Cao Xingcheng also auctioned his Qianlong penholder and donated money to the earthquake-stricken areas in Sichuan.

Dull and bloated, "big company disease" sprouting

In 2005, his old rival Cao Xingcheng retired, and Zhang Zhongmou, who was much older than him, had already made plans to retire.

At this time, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd's second enemy quietly appeared. However, this enemy does not come from the outside, but from the growing Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd himself.

As United Microelectronics Corp was mired in a lawsuit and saw that the tide was over, in May of the same year, the 74-year-old Zhang Zhongmou formally resigned from his post as CEO, handing over Zhang to the "crown prince" Cai Lixing, whom he had nurtured, while retiring home, serving flowers and tea, and spending his retirement life leisurely.

Cai Lixing is relieved. This postdoctoral fellow in materials engineering at Cornell University joined the company just two years after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd was founded. He led the establishment of the first 8-inch factory in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd's history. He was not only an important minister of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd's early expansion, but also a confidant of Zhang Zhongmou.

Although a full 20 years younger than Zhang Zhongmou, Cai Li-Xing and Zhang Zhongmou not only have similar experiences, but also have similar personalities and growing up environments.

Cai Lixing was born into a bureaucratic family. His father, Cai Tongyi, was chairman of the Taiwan Stock Exchange, while Zhang Zhongmou's father was finance director of Ningbo Yinxian County, and his mother was a descendant of Xu Shidong, a famous book collector in Ningbo in the Qing Dynasty.

Apart from their study and career experience, the two are most similar in character and style of conduct. Zhang Zhongmou acts rigorously, has a strong style, and demands perfection in everything. Tsai Li-Xing is even more "strong with iron and blood." the industry says that he runs the factory as a leader, and once the goal is set, rain or shine, the mission will be achieved.

Since defeating United Microelectronics Corp and winning a beautiful technology battle in the 0.13m copper process, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd has gradually embarked on the fast track of development. At this time, Zhang Zhongmou thought he could safely hand over power to Cai Lixing, so he retreated to the second line.

However, less than two years later, the war reached his own doorstep again.

As Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd invests more and more in technology research and development, how to maintain profit margins while continuing to attract customers has become Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd's biggest headache. The situation in the bumper year was acceptable, but once the disaster year came, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd's pressure suddenly increased.

In 2007, the subprime mortgage crisis swept the world, and the semiconductor industry was not immune. In the context of the global financial crunch, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd has to cut prices year after year, and gross profit margin has been falling in order to grab an order from customers whose wallets are getting tighter and tighter.

In order to further reduce costs and improve gross profits, under the auspices of CEO Cai Lixing, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd not only suspended the purchase of advanced technology and equipment for 40nm, but also adopted particularly radical layoffs-the employees in the bottom 5% of the performance rankings were fired directly without leaving any leeway.

At the same time, when the market gradually recovered and there was a shortage of foundry capacity, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd raised prices and "persuaded" many old customers. According to Taiwan media reports, a major American customer of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd said at that time that he could not accept the decision to increase the price and began to train second and third foundry suppliers to prevent them from getting stuck by a single supplier again in the future. And had to accept the price increase.

Zhang Zhongmou saw all this in his eyes and was anxious in his heart.

Today, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd has grown from a small fab with less than a few hundred people to a behemoth with more than 20, 000 employees and businesses all over the world. The mobility of personnel, the management of projects and the inheritance of technology have all become difficult problems on the road of development.

In April 2009, Zhang Zhongmou, who had been delegated power for a long time, rarely appeared at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd's annual business meeting, harshly criticized the whole process, and even said, "Let's be naughty!" If it goes on like this, TSMC will be ruined. "such a heavy remark scolded all the senior executives here in silence.

As the situation continued to ferment, in June of that year, Zhang Zhongmou intervened strongly, not only publicly announced the return of all laid-off employees, but also personally removed Cai Lixing's CEO title, entered the "cold palace" and became general manager of the new enterprise organization.

78-year-old Zhang Zhongmou returned to battle and once again carried the banner of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd.

After the return, the first thing Zhang Zhongmou did was to declare the previous layoffs null and void, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd's door will be opened for all employees who want to return. And not only will there be no layoffs, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd will also increase personnel investment in R & D, spending 1 billion US dollars on R & D, with only one condition to "spend it as soon as possible." you know, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd's total revenue in 2009 was only 9 billion US dollars.

With the improvement of technology, customers come back, and the hearts of the people come together again. In particular, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd invested a lot of money in the research and development of Gate-Last technology, but also overwhelmed the competitors, and became the key node for the company to dominate the industry in 28nm technology.

The return of Zhang Zhongmou strangled Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd's "big company disease" in its infancy.

Tsai Lixing is not incompetent-in a few years, he will parachute his joint CEO position to save another Taiwanese chip maker from the brink of life and death, and be a great success. However, the first generation of entrepreneurs like Zhang Zhongmou have the sense of urgency of "Day 1", "we are only 30 days away from bankruptcy", and the "paranoia" of rejecting public opinions, ignoring financial performance and insisting on their own opinions, which are difficult for all professional managers to possess.

This battle is almost a narrow victory, if a little later, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd will usher in its life's most powerful opponent, a rich and behemoth-Samsung.

Giant Samsung and "traitor" Liang Mengsong

Samsung is the largest conglomerate in South Korea, a large enterprise founded and controlled by the Lee family for nearly 90 years, with nearly 100 subordinate companies involved in electronics, health care, life insurance, finance, construction, hotels and many other fields.

Especially in the electronics industry, Samsung Group's tentacles extend all the way up and down the industrial chain, including screens, batteries, lenses, sensors and other key devices, making huge profits by virtue of technology monopoly. Moreover, the Samsung Group's style is very "Korean", China's mobile phone, TV industry has been squeezed by it miserable.

During the 1985-1987 Japan-US trade war, Japan and the United States had a big fight in the semiconductor field, and Samsung profited, hollowing out Japan's memory chip talents in one fell swoop, rapidly lowering market prices in the next few years, crushing opponents with strong capital strength, and achieving the first place in the memory chip market in 1993 and the first in flash memory chip market in 2003, and has dominated all the way since then.

The smoke of gunpowder in Japan has not yet dissipated, and Samsung is targeting the next victim. According to a report by Taiwan's Today Weekly in 2013, Samsung's top management decided to target Taiwan, a rising IT star, after several plots during the 2008 global subprime crisis.

In order to seize Taiwan's market share, Samsung has formulated a set of meticulous "Kill Taiwan" plans to poach and dump Taiwan's electronics industry, which has crushed Taiwan's storage, panel, and mobile phone industries one after another over the past few years.

And lucrative wafer foundry, naturally can not escape the claws of Samsung.

Due to the high technology investment in the wafer foundry, the smart Samsung did not have a head-on conflict with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd, but skillfully chose the segment of the high-end market. Huang Changgui, president and CEO of Samsung Electronics Semiconductor Division, also repeatedly stressed in an interview with the media that Samsung OEM is mainly for high-end chip products, which is different from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd's positioning.

2009 was the turning point of everything.

During the year, three major events took place:

1. The 78-year-old Zhang Zhongmou returned to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd, removed the "crown prince" Cai Lixing, and put on the CEO shirt again.

2. The "hummingbird" mobile phone chip jointly developed by Apple Inc, Samsung and Intrinsity has been introduced and produced by Samsung.

This mobile phone chip is the masterpiece of Apple Inc and Samsung. With it, Apple Inc came up with the original iPad and iPhone4 that shocked the world, while Samsung launched its masterpiece, the Galaxy SI 9000, which became famous in the first World War. Samsung's contract manufacturing business also surpassed the $400 million mark.

3. Liang Mengsong, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd's technical backbone, ran away angrily and was successfully poached by Samsung and came to South Korea.

In the years since then, Liang Mengsong has been called "Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd's number one traitor" in Taiwan media reports. In this battle, Liang Mengsong joined and instantly overturned the balance of strength of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd and Samsung.

Liang Mengsong has a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. His mentor is Hu Zhengming, the world-famous FinFET inventor of TSMC who has continued his life for TSMC for 20 years.

In Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd's 16 years, Liang Mengsong led the team to lay down many key technological challenges, not only has a strong technical research and development capabilities, but also has a profound industrial Know-How.

According to Liang Mengsong's colleagues' recollection, he was a technophile, capable, demanding, quick-tempered, bold and hot-tempered, and liked to fight on his own, as can be seen in Liang Mengsong's angry remarks about Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation CEO last year.

Today, Liang Mengsong still retains the angular technical pride of the engineer and has a strong love and dedication to advanced technology. Fang Shu-Hua, the former attorney general of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd, once lamented, "(Liang Mengsong) he just has a kind of obsession, thinking that only by doing the most advanced technology can he be regarded as re-used." "

This is also why, when Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd changed his post as vice president of research and development in 2006, Liang Mengsong found that instead of being promoted to vice president of research and development, Liang Mengsong was transferred from the front line of advanced technology research and development and arranged to take charge of the mature process production line of the "beyond Moore" plan. the reaction was so intense that he even angrily denounced it as "overhead", demoted, "frozen" and finally ran away.

At this time, the eagerly awaited Samsung is eagerly opening its arms to welcome the arrival of Liang Mengsong.

The annual salary of hundreds of millions of Taiwan dollars and chartered flights to and from work are only basic operations. more importantly, Samsung has given Liang Mengsong absolute control and broad room for development, allowing him to concentrate on advanced technology.

After Liang Mengsong, the old departments of TSMC, such as Huang Guotai, Xia Jinqiu, Zheng Junlong, Hou Yongtian, and Chen Jianliang, were also successfully poached by Samsung, forming a strong "Taiwan team" within Samsung.

In just a few years, Samsung's wafer foundry technology has developed by leaps and bounds. The wafer foundry watched the key technology nodes of 45nm, 32nm and 28nm be conquered by Samsung one by one, and the gap with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd became smaller and smaller.

Samsung's wafer foundry business was just $400m in 2009, surged to $1.2 billion in 2010 and a staggering $3.95 billion in 2013, rising at an astonishing pace.

By the time Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd sensed the danger and began to sue Liang Mengsong with a competition agreement, it was already a little late.

At this time, Samsung, led by Liang Mengsong, made an extremely bold decision to skip 20nm and march directly to 14nm to get ahead of TSMC's global debut 14nm and declare war head on.

In 2015, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd launched 16nm technology, but Samsung completed the mass production of 14nm as early as half a year ago, and successfully snatched the $1 billion Apple Inc A9 order that should have belonged to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd, while seizing a huge order for Qualcomm Inc chip.

With the backward manufacturing process and the loss of customers, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd's share price began to collapse, and brokerages such as Credit Suisse and CLSA, which have always been bullish on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd, began to downgrade Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd's investment evaluation.

At the law meeting on January 15, 2015, when asked by analysts, Zhang Zhongmou reluctantly admitted, "Yes, we are a little behind." "

This is the biggest crisis Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd has faced since its inception-it has never lagged so significantly behind in advanced processes in the past few decades.

At this time, Zhang Zhongmou is already 84 years old, and doubts abound in the world. Can Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd still win this battle?

The answer is yes.

In order to launch a technological offensive, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd followed Foxconn's example by implementing a 24-hour R & D system with a 30 per cent increase in the basic salary and a 50 per cent increase in dividends, with only one goal-to overthrow Samsung.

After Cai Lixing, the TSMC Electric treatment Plant was already famous for its "iron blood." under the high pressure of chicken blood, it burst into amazing combat effectiveness. Not only the yield of 16nm process increased in a straight line, but also opened the sample delivery certification of 10nm process at the end of 2015.

At the same time, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd also carried out a protracted legal crackdown on Liang Mengsong. Even if Liang Mengsong repeatedly stressed that he did not disclose Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd's core secrets, it is useless to "absolutely abide by the non-compete rules".

The presiding courts in Taiwan even made their positions clear from the very beginning. Xiong Chin-mei, the presiding judge of the second instance, even said bluntly, "how many big enterprises can there be in Taiwan?" If we don't protect them (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd), who should we protect? "

Just when Liang Mengsong was struggling with the lawsuit, Samsung's 14nm process also had obvious problems with yield and power control because of a first start, and even the iPhone6s "chip gate" incident, which made Apple Inc's follow-up A9 additional order back into Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd's hands.

After being bothered by litigation, Liang Mengsong bid farewell to Samsung and was invited to join Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation as a CEO post in 2017.

In this game, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd won again narrowly.

Up to now, however, Samsung has not given up its pursuit of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd.

In 2016, South Korean media reported that Samsung agreed to Qualcomm Inc to carry the Snapdragon 830chip in its Galaxy S8 on condition that Qualcomm Inc's Snapdragon 830 order would be manufactured by Samsung.

In 2019, Samsung desperately pushed down prices, frantically grabbed an order from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd, and has successfully won NVIDIA Corp's order.

In October last year, Samsung Group controller Lee Jae-yong personally flew to the Dutch headquarters of lithography giant ASML and was personally received by ASML CEO and CTO to further discuss opportunities for cooperation in 5nm, 3nm and even more advanced processes.

The smoke of gunpowder has not stopped, and the war continues.

The end.

Looking back at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd's 40-year course of ups and downs, these three major battles have precisely divided Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd's growth into three stages.

In the early stage of growth, the struggle between Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd and United Microelectronics Corp promoted the outbreak of the first generation of foundry technology. United Microelectronics Corp's aggressive "arms expansion race" has accumulated a rich material basis for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd's global hegemony in the future.

In the middle of growth, with the increasingly bloated enterprise organizations and the quietly emergence of "big company disease", Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd strangled it in the bud in time, was not bound by financial statements, and further strengthened the foundation of technology. It has established a cultural foundation for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd's long-term development.

In the later stage of his growth, when Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd really stood on the global stage and faced the tycoons of wealthy chaebol, it not only cleaned up the R & D system, but also used international political relations like a fish in water. leading Taiwan's wafer foundry industry to successfully avoid Samsung's "precision explosion" and move towards global hegemony.

Sometimes your enemies are the ones you should be most grateful for.