The Tech Archived · VIDEO ESSAY

The Fascinating Story of ASUS: The Taiwanese Manufacturer That Outsmarted Every PC Brand

In 1989, four engineers left one of Taiwan's most respected tech companies to make a single computer component that almost nobody outside the industry could name. That component ended up inside machines sold by Dell, HP, Sony, and IBM, and the company that made it did so invisibly for over a decade before anyone outside the supply chain knew its name. This is the story of how ASUS went from anonymous motherboard supplier to one of the most recognisable names in consumer electronics, why the brands that once commissioned its factories are now worth less than the company they hired, and what thirty years of understanding hardware from the inside out actually produces when a company decides to put its name on the outside of the box.