C. C. Wei

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (TSMC) lost one of its biggest customers last year when U.S. sanctions prevented the Taiwanese chipmaker from selling semiconductors to Chinese telecom manufacturer Huawei Technologies. But under CEO C.C. Wei’s leadership, TSMC shrugged off the loss. Its profits rose 50% in 2020, as the chipmaker scored new contracts from major clients, including a deal to manufacture Apple’s latest own-brand chips. (The record earnings earned Wei a nearly 30% pay bump in 2020.) With global industries now enduring a chip shortage, TSMC’s importance as the world’s largest contract chip manufacturer is more pronounced, and Wei—who has been CEO since 2018, after serving five years as co-CEO with now chairman Mark Liu—has committed the company to meeting the moment. To increase production capacity, Wei has upped TSMC’s capital expenditures to $100 billion over the next three years—averaging roughly double the amount the chipmaker spent in 2020.