C.C. Wei

Companies are rarely so important that they become a foreign policy matter. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.—the world’s largest contract chipmaker, Asia’s most valuable company, and major supplier to clients like Apple and Nvidia—is the exception, as the only company that can make the most-advanced chips at scale. C.C. Wei, TSMC’s chair since June, now leads the chipmaker through the AI boom, potentially sending the company’s revenue to record levels in 2024. TSMC is also investing in new plants in the U.S., Japan, and Germany, as governments throw money at chipmakers to build a more diverse—and likely more expensive—supply chain.