Huang Chung-jen, PSMC Chairman and Self-Proclaimed 'World's Most Senior DRAM CEO,' Dies at 76

What was Huang Chung-jen's educational background and how did he enter the tech industry?

Huang Chung-jen was born in Taipei in 1949, the son of Huang Dangshi, a National Taiwan University (NTU) medical school professor, according to Inside.com.tw (E4). He graduated from NTU's physics department in 1971, then went to the United States, where he earned a medical doctorate in neurosurgery from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, per Inside.com.tw (E5). A separate UDN report corroborates this timeline, describing his 1971 NTU physics graduation and his Mount Sinai neurosurgery doctorate, adding that he taught at Taipei Medical College and NTU after returning to Taiwan (E20). He returned to Taiwan in 1980 and taught physiology at Taipei Medical College and physics at NTU, eventually chairing the physiology department at Taipei Medical College, according to Inside.com.tw (E5). In 1987, at age 38, he left academia to found Litong Computer (力捷電腦), moving into the information technology industry, per Inside.com.tw (E6).

How did Huang Chung-jen found Powerchip Semiconductor and enter DRAM manufacturing?

In 1994, Huang founded Powerchip Semiconductor (力晶半導體), moving into DRAM manufacturing, according to both Inside.com.tw (E7) and a separate UDN account (E21). The UDN report adds that Powerchip built its early manufacturing base through a partnership with Japan's Mitsubishi Electric, constructing both 8-inch and 12-inch wafer fabs (E21). Beyond Powerchip and Litong Computer, UDN reports that Huang also participated in founding several other listed companies, including Solartech (新日光), Chimei/Solartech-linked 晶相光電, eMemory (力旺), and 愛普 (E15).

How did the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent downturn push Powerchip toward its 2012 delisting?

According to Inside.com.tw, Powerchip's cumulative losses widened after the 2008 financial crisis as the DRAM market collapsed, leaving the company with NT$120 billion (1,200億元) in debt and forcing its stock off the exchange in 2012, pushing the company to the brink of collapse (E8). A separate UDN report frames the same figure slightly differently, attributing the debt to Powerchip's heavy capital investment combined with a prolonged market downturn following the 2008 crisis, again citing debt of over NT$120 billion and the 2012 delisting as one of Taiwan's most closely watched corporate crises (E22).

How did Powerchip relist nine years later as PSMC?

UDN reports that Powerchip was delisted at the end of 2012 due to a prolonged DRAM downturn, and that under Huang's leadership the company underwent nine years of organizational and capital restructuring, transforming from a memory maker into a foundry before relisting under the PSMC (力積電) name in 2021 (E16). A second UDN account adds a specific structural step: in 2018, Huang renamed the entity 鉅晶電子 (Chü-jing Electronics) to PSMC and completed the asset restructuring of its 12-inch fab, culminating in the 2021 relisting as a milestone in the shift from memory maker to foundry (E23).

What commitment did Huang say motivated the restructuring?

According to UDN, Huang said one of his core beliefs in pushing the restructuring was to give an accounting to more than 320,000 Powerchip shareholders — so their shares would not become worthless paper, and so the shareholders' self-help association from the crisis years could eventually become a group that shared in the company's return to the capital markets (E17).

What did PSMC report and promise after relisting?

Inside.com.tw reports that after paying off its debt, Powerchip relisted on the Taiwan Stock Exchange in 2021 under ticker 6770, adopting the PSMC (力積電) name (E9). At an earnings call on July 14, Huang told investors PSMC "will definitely pay a dividend next year," delivered in a steady tone with no signs of distress, as the company had just reported a 28% gross margin for the second quarter (E10). Inside.com.tw also reports that in recent years, Huang pushed PSMC toward AI and logic chip foundry work, publicly stating the company had entered Intel's EMIB packaging supply chain and NVIDIA's supply chain (E11).

How is Huang Chung-jen's standing in the semiconductor industry described?

According to UDN, Huang once described himself as the world's most senior DRAM CEO, having steered Powerchip through multiple memory-industry cycles and successfully transformed it from a DRAM maker into a foundry (E13). UDN also reports that outsiders often called him a "cat with nine lives" (九命怪貓) in reference to his corporate resilience — not only for leading the company back to public listing, but for paying off more than NT$100 billion in debt and completing a corporate transformation considered rare in Taiwanese business history (E24). Separately, UDN reports that Huang spent years engaged in semiconductor industry public affairs, having served as chairman of the Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association and chairman of the World Semiconductor Council, working to promote industry exchange and talent development (E25). More recently, following the rise of AI, UDN reports Huang led PSMC into 3D AI chips, wafer-on-wafer (WoW) stacking, specialty processes, and overseas partnerships, seeking growth beyond PSMC's mature-node foundry business (E26). Beyond the chip industry, UDN notes Huang was also known as an art collector, having purchased a painting known as the "Young Mona Lisa" for $1.6 million at auction roughly seven years before his death, and having appeared on a Discovery Channel program (E18).

How did Huang Chung-jen die, and who succeeds him at PSMC?

PSMC issued a material announcement at 17:51 on July 31 stating that Huang died that afternoon from heart-lung failure, passing peacefully in his sleep at home, at the age of 76, according to Inside.com.tw (E1). A same-day UDN report on the same announcement gives his age at death as 77 (E2), attributing the cause likewise to heart-lung failure and confirming he died peacefully in his sleep at home (E3). UDN reports that PSMC named vice chairman Frank Hsieh (謝再居) as acting chairman under law, with the company's production and sales operations to proceed as planned and staff continuing to drive the company's development (E19). Inside.com.tw notes that PSMC's announcement closed with a pledge that "all employees will continue to give their full effort, carrying forward the cause founder Dr. Huang Chung-jen opened for Taiwan's high-tech industry" (E12).

Key dates and figures

What this means

The figures assembled from PSMC's own history trace a single arc: a company that carried NT$120 billion in debt into a 2012 delisting (E8, E22) emerged nine years later, in 2021, under ticker 6770 (E9, E16), and by mid-2026 was reporting a 28% quarterly gross margin while its chairman promised shareholders a dividend the following year (E10). That same chairman, on the day of his death, was described by two outlets with a one-year age discrepancy — 76 versus 77 (E1, E2) — a small inconsistency in an otherwise consistent record of the debt paid, the shareholders addressed (E17), and the supply-chain claims made in PSMC's later years (E11). The company's own statement — invoking Huang's "cause" of opening new ground for Taiwan's high-tech industry (E12) — sits alongside the outside nickname "cat with nine lives" (E24), both pointing to the same underlying fact set: a delisting, a nine-year restructuring, and a relisting, all under one chairman's tenure.