Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol TSM.
TSMC is the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry. Rather than primarily selling chips under its own consumer brand, it manufactures processors designed by other companies. Its customers have included major technology firms that design smartphone, computer, and artificial-intelligence chips.
TSMC’s ordinary shares trade in Taiwan, while its American depositary shares trade in New York under TSM. An American depositary share represents an ownership interest in a specified number of foreign-company shares; it is not the same thing as a separate operating company.
The company’s importance to the market-cap rankings comes from the strategic value of advanced chip production. Its fabrication facilities, or fabs, make chips on leading process technologies used in high-performance computing and mobile devices.