Morris Chang founded Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company in 1987.
Morris Chang established TSMC in Hsinchu, Taiwan, with government and private-sector support. The company pioneered the dedicated semiconductor foundry model: it manufactures chips designed by other companies instead of competing with those customers by selling its own branded chip designs.
That model transformed the semiconductor industry. Companies such as fabless chip designers can concentrate on architecture and engineering while outsourcing physical production to a specialist foundry. TSMC’s manufacturing processes became essential to advanced processors used in smartphones, computers, data centers, and artificial-intelligence systems.
TSMC is often confused with companies that design chips, such as NVIDIA or AMD. Those firms create important chip architectures, while TSMC primarily manufactures designs for customers. Its market capitalization reflects its scale, technological lead, capital investment, and central position in the global semiconductor supply chain.