C.C. Wei

Dr. C.C. Wei is in charge of the world’s largest contract semiconductor manufacturer, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), having served its CEO since 2018, and its Chairman since June 2024.

TSMC, whose clients include Apple, NVIDIA, and AMD, has taken on new importance amidst the ongoing AI boom—it is the only company in the world currently capable of fabricating the cutting-edge chips that power the most advanced AI systems. Its market value has nearly tripled over the past six years.

The company’s unparalleled manufacturing capabilities, combined with the strategic importance of its product, puts it in a fraught position in relation to the tensions between the U.S. and China. Wei is careful about what he says about this relationship in public. Reflecting on his career during a talk at Yale, his alma mater, Wei said with an apologetic smile “I was not allowed to give a speech without going through my legal department…I don’t make a public comment on China,” going on to note that many of TSMC’s customers were from China.

Wei has been at the company since 1998. Under his leadership, TSMC has initiated a significant global expansion beyond Taiwan, with plans for new advanced chip factories in the United States and Germany, and ongoing construction in Japan.

TSMC has been one of the beneficiaries of billions of dollars of subsidies provided under America’s CHIPS Act. To date, they have been awarded over $6 billion to support the construction of a factory in Arizona. There’s a “huge amount of talented people” in America, Wei told Yale students. He believes the company’s westward expansion is an opportunity for it to recruit and build towards the future.