The chairman of the world’s largest contract chipmaker has become a billionaire thanks to expected demand for Apple Inc’s new iPhone.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) shares have surged 25 percent in the past year, lifting TSMC founder and chairman Morris Chang’s (張忠謀) personal fortune to US$1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Chang, 86, owns 0.5 percent of the business directly and through his family, according to a May filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The climbing valuation is being fueled by optimism about a revenue boost from the upcoming iPhone release, as well as long-term expectations that cars, high-performance computing and the Internet of Things will be new growth drivers for its processors, according to Randy Abrams, a Taipei-based equity analyst at Credit Suisse Group AG.
TSMC spokeswoman Elizabeth Sun (孫又文) declined to comment on Chang’s net worth.
TSMC has a market cap of almost US$180 billion, making it the most valuable company on the Taiwanese stock exchange. Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海), the listed flagship of iPhone assembler Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), is the second-most valuable company on the exchange has risen 56 percent in the past year to US$67.6 billion.
The Taiwan Taiex Electronics Index, a measure of the market’s technology stocks, is up 22 percent in the same period.
Chang founded TSMC in 1987 with backing from the Taiwanese government, which remains the company’s largest shareholder through the National Development Fund’s 6.4 percent stake.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University graduate spent the majority of his career working for Texas Instruments Inc. He established TSMC when he was in his mid-50 and became the first to build a semiconductor factory that made chips based on the designs of its customers.
Chang stepped down as chief executive officer in 2005 only to return when TSMC’s business stagnated, serving another stint as CEO between 2009 and 2013.
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