On December 19, TSMC announced the retirement of chairman Mark Liu, but there has been increasing speculation that the chairman's five-year tenure might have been ended forcibly (via Wealth Magazine). Taiwanese media voices theorize that Liu's abrupt departure from the company is related to the construction delays for TSMC's Arizona fab, which Liu spent much of 2023 trying to keep on track.
Retirement isn't unusual for someone who's been working for roughly forty years, but there are two main reasons why Liu's retirement has stirred up speculation. The first is that it was very sudden; there was very little warning at all. Additionally, the press release surrounding his retirement came from TSMC and not Liu himself. By contrast, TSMC founder Morris Chang, who served as both chairman and CEO, announced his own retirement in 2018 and made his own statements.
According to industry rumors, the immediate cause for Liu's removal was problems surrounding Fab 21. The construction for Fab 21 in Arizona has been troubled since it began in April 2021, and chairman Liu blamed local Arizonan workers for the delays. His solution to get Fab 21 back on track was to send experienced TSMC workers from Taiwan, but this only angered the locals and unions. Eventually, the chairman backtracked on his comments about American workers and made concessions to the unions to end the conflict that had started half a year ago.
But beyond that, it is reported that Liu's position in TSMC was already fragile due to Chang's disapproval of U.S. collaboration. Although TSMC's founder has held no official position at the company since 2018, he is apparently personally influential enough for his opinion to matter. Chang has been skeptical of the CHIPS Act and attempts to build new fabs in America, and this reflected poorly on Liu's position. According to this theory, the chairman was already on thin ice with his support for TSMC-U.S. cooperation, and the problems at Fab 21 were the final straw.
After announcing his retirement, the board of directors recommended that current TSMC CEO C.C. Wei should succeed Liu as chairman. This would end the dual-rule arrangement set up after the retirement of Morris Chang, unless Wei resigns as CEO upon his accession as chairman.
However, Wei might hold onto both positions to face the challenges ahead. TSMC has invested billions of dollars into Fab 21 and the wider project to revive semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S., but the company hasn't yet received subsidies from the federal government. Chairman Liu allegedly got the boot for not fixing this situation, so Wei must get everything back on track, or he could face similar consequences.
