TSMC, or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, is Taiwan’s largest semiconductor contract manufacturer and was founded in 1987.
Morris Chang established TSMC in Hsinchu, Taiwan, with support from the Taiwanese government and Philips. The company pioneered the dedicated foundry model: it manufactures chips designed by other companies rather than competing with most customers by selling its own branded processors.
This model enabled companies such as Nvidia, Apple, AMD, and Qualcomm to design advanced chips without owning their own leading-edge factories. TSMC manufactures products using successive process technologies, including nodes described in nanometers, although those labels are not direct measurements of a single physical feature.
TSMC is frequently confused with a chip designer because it produces some of the world’s most advanced semiconductors. Its business is primarily fabrication and related services. The company’s scale and technological lead have made it one of the most valuable businesses in global equity markets.