In 1977, at 29 years old, Zhang began working at the semi-conductor giant Texas Instruments alongside experts in integrated circuits with his first boss having been Nobel Prize in Physics laureate Jack Kilby. Starting as a design engineer, during his twenty formative years at Texas Instruments, Zhang would develop under the mentorship of his boss, Dr. Shao Zifan, and help establish large-scale microchip factories including four in Texas, and others in Italy, Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan. Zhang would bring his then retired parents to the United States from Taiwan. Coincidentally, Zhang Zhangmou, to-be founder of today's largest dedicated pure-play semiconductor foundry, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), also worked at Texas Instruments, though the two never crossed-paths. In 1996, leaders from a visiting delegation from the now-defunct Chinese Ministry of Electronics Industry approached Zhang in the United States and, noting China's twenty-year gap in semiconductor manufacture, encouraged Zhang to return to mainland China and help his birth nation establish their own chip fabrication industry. In 1997, after twenty years of work at Texas Instruments and with prodding from his father to return to their homeland, Zhang agreed. Zhang's decision to bring his expertise back to develop the industry in his birth country is likened to Qian Xuesen, who returned from the United States to establish the People's Republic of China's rocket program.
