The World's Biggest Chipmaker is Facing its Biggest Crisis Yet

SubscribeSign in

The World's Premier Chipmaker is Facing its Biggest Crisis Yet<br>[Opinion] Chairman and CEO CC Wei needs to make changes to employee relations, fast. His skyrocketing pay package doesn't much help matters.

Tim Culpan<br>May 27, 2026

Share

Good Evening from Taipei,<br>TSMC’s CC Wei has negotiated with Donald Trump, delivered price rises to Tim Cook, and haggled over capacity allocation with Jensen Huang.<br>His hour-long talk with over 7,000 staff on Wednesday morning was far more crucial to the company’s long-term success than any other showdown the chipmaker’s Chairman and CEO is ever likely to face.<br>Join thousands of readers getting exclusive insights. Direct to your inbox. Culpium.

Subscribe

Faced with growing discontent over what many see as an unfair tweak to their compensation schedules, Wei canceled a business trip and at 5:30pm Tuesday night announced an impromptu townhall for 10am the next day. The event was in-office only — streamed to company auditoriums and meeting rooms — and booked out within 10 minutes, sources told me. Those who missed a slot could not dial in, I was told, a sign of the company’s paranoia about leaks.<br>TSMC pays out 12.5% of an employee’s annual bonus each quarter, with the final 50% delivered in July the following year. This quarter the company trimmed its payout while maintaining that full-year bonuses would still be higher than the prior year.

Tune in to this week’s Supply-Chained with Tim Culpan ( Culpium ) & Jon Y ( Asianometry ).<br>ASML: Riding the AI Wave, but Crushed by its Own Success

As Wei explained it, company profit is shared across three key categories: shareholders, employees, and ESG.<br>The reason for this adjustment is so the company could allocate “an even larger share of our earnings towards initiatives that foster social sustainability in order to give back to Taiwan.” In other words, more for ESG and less for staff.<br>The company’s explanation is staggering, confusing and not at all appeasing for thousands of the company’s 91,000 employees. Many have taken to bulletin boards and social media to express their frustration, anonymously, over what was seen as both a lack of gratitude and a measure of backsliding.<br>What’s particularly galling to many staff is that Wei’s own total compensation ballooned last year to $78 million — stated as NT$2.4 billion. Some employees whom I spoke with were flabbergasted when told of the CEO’s total compensation, which only came to light buried in the pages of its 2025 annual report which was published recently. They knew it was big but didn’t know it was that big. A small fraction of that figure comes from his salary, with the bulk coming from bonuses and allowances tied to performance, as well as profit sharing.

But beyond the actual figure, Wei’s total compensation as a share of net income climbed 75% in 2025. Likewise, his compensation has outpaced median employee salaries in recent years, according to Culpium calculations based on data in TSMC’s annual report and information filed to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.<br>In most Western countries, such large executive compensation packages are par for the course. In Taiwan, however, there’s an expectation that a modicum of egalitarianism be maintained between management and the rank and file.<br>Asked about his salary during Wednesday’s meeting, Wei punted and explained that his package is decided by the board, I am told. He also downplayed the prospect of a Samsung-style employee union, suggesting they’re more trouble for workers than they may be worth.

The issue is that many employees feel they’ve been working brutal hours to help expand capacity and churn out the world’s most high-tech chips amid a historic boom in demand driven by AI. It’s the staff, they reason, who should be getting the spoils and not some vague notion the company has about fostering “social sustainability.”<br>We would like to extend our sincere appreciation to all colleagues for their invaluable contributions. As the company continues to grow, we are highly confident that the full-year growth percentage of our employee profit sharing (based on performance evaluation) will surpass that of last year. We also believe that, with the company's sustained future growth, our profit sharing will continue to increase. — TSMC Statement, 25 May 2026.

As this issue started to boil over, a number of employees reached out to me directly to vent their frustration, share their take, and ask if I had further information. That a journalist was seen as a more reliable source than their own company speaks volumes. The tamest comments I got framed the saga as merely a problem of poor communication rather than corporate malice. Others were not so kind and noted that Wei himself enjoyed record compensation last year while revenue, profit and market cap have climbed to record highs.<br>These issues put together are not a good look for Wei.<br>In Wednesday’s townhall,...