Taiwanese contract maker Foxconn Technology Group has hired Chiang Shang-yi, a decades-long veteran of some of the world's largest chipmakers, to push the company further into semiconductors and strengthen its supply chain.
Foxconn, the world's largest assembler of iPhones, hopes to find new growth engines in chipmaking and in industries that rely on chips such as electric vehicles.
Foxconn said on Tuesday that Jiang Shangyi, who is more than seventy years old, will provide the company with global semiconductor deployment strategies and technical guidance. He will serve as the newly created position of semiconductor strategy officer and report directly to CEO Young Liu.
Liu Yangwei said in the statement that he would like to thank Jiang Shangyi for his willingness to join in the critical period when Foxconn Group is fully developing the semiconductor industry, and to contribute to the group's semiconductor development.
During his work at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., 2330.TW, referred to as TSMC, Jiang Shangyi was widely praised for leading technological breakthroughs and helping TSMC develop into the world's largest chip foundry manufacturer. He later became the co-chief operating officer of TSMC. Jiang Shangyi later went to work in a semiconductor company in mainland China, but his development was not so successful.
Jiang Shangyi joined Foxconn as the group's core electronics assembly business faces a series of major challenges, including shrinking global demand for electronics products, sluggish production operations caused by the new crown epidemic and rising geopolitical risks.
A recent outbreak of the coronavirus in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou has forced thousands of employees to leave Foxconn's local campus. Problems at the Zhengzhou factory, Foxconn's largest iPhone assembly base in the world, have caused major disruptions to production of Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) latest models.
In recent years, Foxconn has ambitiously wanted to expand into new business areas, especially electric vehicle manufacturing, and thus has repeatedly deployed the global semiconductor industry, including purchasing factory facilities in the United States and participating in an investment in a debt-laden Chinese chip giant. .
Born in China and educated in Taiwan and the United States, Jiang Shangyi was a longtime technical director at TSMC. In 2003, TSMC produced smaller chips with a breakthrough method, and became a leading semiconductor manufacturer with global attention. Jiang Shangyi ranked first in the award team of the project at that time.
After retiring from TSMC, Jiang Shangyi was appointed as an independent director of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Co., 688981.SH, China's largest chipmaker, in 2016. Less than three years later, he briefly joined another Chinese semiconductor company, which closed in 2021 after encountering financial problems.
In 2020, Jiang Shangyi was hired by SMIC again, this time as vice chairman, with the task of helping to promote the development of China's chip industry in response to the US blacklist and tightening export controls.
SMIC's move sparked an immediate controversy, with Liang Mengsong, the company's co-chief executive, threatening to resign because SMIC had not consulted Jiang Shangyi on the decision to hire him. Previously in TSMC's R&D team, Jiang Shangyi served as Liang Mengsong's boss.
After about a year in office, Jiang Shangyi resigned from SMIC. In July this year, in an interview with the industry information website Computer History Museum, he admitted that joining SMIC was a wrong decision.
Jiang Shangyi said that this is one of the stupid things he has done in his life.
Last month, Jiang Shangyi attended a major technology event held by Foxconn in Taiwan as a guest.
