TSMC's Renegade Genius

Liang Mong Song (梁孟松) was one of TSMC’s founding geniuses.

Unquestionably brilliant but scathingly difficult to work with, he rose through TSMC’s ranks for nearly two decades.

Then he defected to South Korea to work for the company's biggest and fiercest competitor: Samsung.

In doing so, he near single-handedly pushed Samsung to overtake and overthrow the Taiwanese chip giant.

Most Western media seem to skip over TSMC's history after its founding. I think what happened between then and now is just as enthralling.

In this video, we are going to look at one of the company's most dramatic events: the defection of Liang Mong-song.

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[seph]

Taiwanese companies have their fair share of poaching talents too. Around 2009-2014, Tokyo grew increasingly worried about the trend of retired japanese engineers popping up and rejoining the labor market in Taiwan. Lots of these japanese engineers worked in renesas, toshiba dram, national electric, and others.

[pavelnikulin]

When I worked in Shanghai, Liang used to frequent the "semiconductor starbucks" in Zhangjiang semiconductor port. An informal hangout place for peope who worked in the Shanghai semiconductor scene at the time.

I have no way to confirm if everything he was saying about TSMC is 100% true, but he was very salty, nearing personal animosity about his seniors allowing "rot" from quid-pro-quo promotions to take root, and "circle hiring." As for what he spoke of his remuneration at TSM, he have certainly went for a hyperbole, unless he meant he was getting "less than 100k" in a month.

The disaster with Liang has certainly made TSMC to correct since then. PG35-38 RnD staff salaries got more than doubled, and they toned down on hiring for senior posts from outside.

[seanongjoco]

Liang is an unsung hero of semi-conductor physics. He single-handedly advanced IC industries and spat on the face of monopolies. His efforts would be remembered by all as the one of the reason why we have these technologies today.

[thomascrabtree]

TSMC accusing the employee of being disloyal after they pushed him out. What did they expect? I’ve seen this time and time again at tech companies. 5% of employees do all the work and they’re usually antisocial and the first to get fired during lean times, then get constantly harassed by their former colleagues for help because they can’t do the job without them.

[freekevil]

I have no words to describe how much your work is amazing .. keep it up .. no channel is even close to your work

[Stravant]

I don't understand how you can possibly produce such information packed videos so frequently.

[OmegaSparky]

Small quibble - IBM did commercialize their Cu interconnect tech and Transmeta used it at the 180nm node in 2000. If memory serves me, it used aluminum for M1 and Cu for M2 or perhaps M3 and up. IBM's move to silicon on insulator and other events meant we needed to shift to other fabs - eventually settling on TSMC's 130nm process for the Efficeon.

[craigslist]

Can we talk about how guys at the absolute superstar level of chip R&D, who have impacted the entire world with technology advances, are paid 1.5M?
There are youtubers who actively lower the intelligence of viewers and get paid much more. 1.5M is entry level chump change for CEOs.

Goes to show that even the very best engineers need representation. Technical intelligence seems to have a lot of hubris attached that precludes engineers from thinking they need help, but clearly engineers are terrible at compensation negotiation.

[AppliedCryogenics]

Thanks for the solid research and clear, interesting presentation.

[AlanMedina]

These are the people that drive human race forward with uncompromising focus on a singular task.
Good Video.

[woolfel]

wow, I learned a lot from this video. I never heard of most of these people. Even though my family is from Taiwan, I've never heard of any of them talking about these TSMC super stars

[HellerHouse]

One of the best videos in a long list of amazing videos by Asianometry... thanks.

[alphar]

With recent confirmation that SMIC 7nm 2nd Gen is real, it looks like Liang may have provided China its greatest technical achievement in decades.

[trashpanda]

I feel real bad about myself now. I'm only working the day shift and getting a master's degree. I have no clue how I would attempt a phd

[samwang]

As the old Chinese saying goes: When there are no more birds in the sky, the bow is stored away. When there are no more cunning rabbits, the running dogs are cooked. Liang must know it too. How he is going to steer away from that fatalistic end could be the biggest challenge of his career at SMIC.

[robertcormia]

This was amazing, no idea the history was so complex. Loved the final line, it's not about the million dollar machines, it's about the people. If the US wants to regain manufacturing prowess in semiconductors, we'll need that same drive, from the top R&D scientists to the process technicians.

[wynetsang]

I was attending US collage in the early 1970's and read that many Taiwan Chinese scientists suffered discrimination and migrated to China in order to continue their scientific work.

[Mrfriends]

Its amazing how scientists that literally make or break whole industries get paid only 300k.
Athletes and celebrities get that kind of money to wear some clothing for an hour or whatever.

[ulrikmathiastopp]

Jon, this might be your best episode yet. Loved all the characters in this story. It's sometimes easy to forget there are actual wizards and geniuses inside these companies. More of this!

[defeatSpace]

I have infinite respect for these wonderful people, considering everything I've been able to get computers to do for me, none of it would be possible without them, or at least not as quickly.