TSMC, founded in 1987, is the world’s largest contract chip manufacturer by revenue.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company pioneered the dedicated semiconductor foundry model. Rather than primarily selling chips under its own consumer brand, TSMC manufactures integrated circuits designed by other companies, including many leading fabless chip designers.
Its customers have included major technology companies such as Nvidia, Apple, AMD, and Qualcomm. TSMC’s advanced process technologies are especially important for high-performance processors used in smartphones, servers, graphics systems, and artificial-intelligence hardware.
TSMC is frequently confused with Nvidia because both are central to the AI-chip economy. Nvidia designs many of the best-known AI processors, while TSMC manufactures chips for Nvidia and numerous other customers. TSMC’s scale and technical lead have also made it one of the most valuable publicly traded companies in the world.