Fiorina to join board at TSMC

Carly Fiorina, who got ousted as Hewlett-Packard's CEO last year will join the board of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. as an independent board member.

TSMC is the largest foundry in the world. Foundries make chips for companies that don't have their own facilities and have grown in importance in the last decade as the cost of building facilities has escalated. Getting an alliance with TSMC or another top-tier foundry like Chartered is often a crucial step for semiconductor start-ups.

In recent years, the company has been negotiating with the Taiwanese government to let it open factories in mainland China.