Interview with Lin Hong-wen, adviser to Taiwan's Business Weekly and author of 'The Secret of TSMC's No. 1 in the World'

"TSMC founder repeatedly called Samsung a 'formidable' rival"

TSMC chairman, asked about Samsung catching up: "Our competitors are in effect dreaming"

"Samsung's ferocious No. 1 spirit and overwhelming drive remain its greatest weapons"

Lin Hong-wen, an adviser to Taiwan's Business Weekly who has covered TSMC for more than 30 years, said in an interview June 4 in Taipei that TSMC founder Morris Chang repeatedly described Samsung as a "formidable" competitor at public events. [Joint press corps]
Lin Hong-wen, an adviser to Taiwan's Business Weekly who has covered TSMC for more than 30 years, said in an interview June 4 in Taipei that TSMC founder Morris Chang repeatedly described Samsung as a "formidable" competitor at public events. [Joint press corps]

"Samsung has always been a powerful rival without question. TSMC founder Morris Chang repeatedly called it a 'formidable competitor' at public events."

Lin Hong-wen, an adviser to Taiwan's Business Weekly who has covered TSMC for more than 30 years, made the remarks in an interview June 4 in Taipei. Samsung, he said, was "a towering wall and a fearsome giant that Morris Chang had to overcome throughout his entire career" — a rival TSMC could never afford to dismiss, one that was "daunting and frightening when faced head-on."

Lin is the author of "The Secret of TSMC's No. 1 in the World," a bestseller in South Korea, and has also written on the Korean semiconductor market, including a book on Samsung as a commercial titan.

TSMC Chairman Wei Che-chia was recently asked at the company's shareholder meeting in Hsinchu, Taiwan, whether Samsung Electronics could eventually overtake TSMC to lead the foundry market. He said competitors were "in effect dreaming," adding that while South Korea had built competitiveness in HBM, TSMC held a firm grip on the world's most advanced semiconductor technology.

Without naming Samsung directly, Wei said: "Our competitors said 10 years from now they would catch up with TSMC — they said that 20 years ago, they said it again 10 years ago, and now they are saying it once more."

Lin offered a more nuanced view of the rivalry's history. According to him, TSMC did not surpass Samsung Electronics even in foundry — contract chip manufacturing — until well into the 2010s. At the time, Samsung was producing all of the application processors for Apple's iPhone lineup. It was only when the legal battle between Apple and Samsung over smartphones reached its peak that Apple shifted its next-generation AP orders to TSMC. As those orders grew, the current structure in which TSMC dominates Apple's chip supply took shape.

Morris Chang himself entered the DRAM business in 1994 but could not survive the brutal semiconductor price war and suffered a bitter defeat. "The very company that handed Morris Chang that crushing loss was Samsung Electronics, which dominated the global DRAM market at the time," Lin said. "He experienced firsthand just how destructive Samsung's force could be."

Yet Lin said Samsung today lacks the "hungry spirit" it once had. He said Taiwanese equipment suppliers have recently observed that whereas Samsung engineers in the past would stay up all night to fix equipment problems themselves, engineers today tend to call in vendor or partner staff even for minor issues and are reluctant to get their hands dirty. "As the 'Fukuda Report' also pointed out, since Chairman Lee Jae-yong took the helm, Samsung's organizational structure has become excessively bureaucratic and rigid, and the company is losing the flexibility and fighting spirit that once defined it," Lin said.

Still, Lin said Samsung's strongest asset remains its ferocious drive to be No. 1 — the conviction that finishing second means extinction — combined with the sheer force of will he sees as distinctly Korean. "If Chairman Lee Jae-yong exercises strong leadership and revives within the organization the fighting spirit and relentless pursuit of excellence that defined his predecessors, Samsung can stage a fearsome comeback at any time," he said.

前 TSMC 기술 임원 “삼성 파운드리, 기술은 충분…성공하려면 독자법인으로 승부해야” [세계 반도체 제조 심장을 가다④]

前 TSMC 기술 임원 “삼성 파운드리, 기술은 충분…성공하려면 독자법인으로 승부해야” [세계 반도체 제조 심장을 가다④]

[헤럴드경제(타이베이)=박지영 기자] “파운드리는 서비스업이지, 기술 집약형 산업이 아닙니다. ‘삼성의 기술이 좋은가’와 ‘삼성이 파운드리(반도체 위탁생산)를 잘할
https://biz.heraldcorp.com/article/10767456?sec=027

go@heraldcorp.com