TSMC is the company founded in 1976 that became the world’s largest contract chipmaker.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company was established by Morris Chang in Hsinchu, Taiwan, and began operations in 1987. Its defining innovation was the dedicated foundry model: TSMC manufactures chips designed by other companies rather than primarily selling chips under its own consumer brand. This allowed designers such as Apple, Nvidia, and AMD to outsource production while concentrating on architecture and software.
TSMC is often confused with semiconductor designers such as Nvidia or Qualcomm. Those companies create important chip designs, whereas TSMC fabricates many of the physical chips. Its advanced process technologies and large manufacturing scale have made it one of the most strategically important companies in the global technology industry.