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Events on Saturday 21 February 1987 1
1987Morris Chang founds TSMCMorris Chang, a 55-year-old Texas Instruments veteran, founds Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company on 21 February 1987 in the Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan, with $220 million in capital — half from the Taiwanese government, half from Philips. Chang's insight is radical: rather than designing chips and manufacturing them (the integrated device manufacturer model), TSMC will only manufacture chips for other companies. The pure-play foundry model does not yet exist. Everyone in the industry considers it either obvious or impossible.