TSMC is the world’s largest contract chipmaker and manufactures processors for outside customers.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company was founded in 1987 by Morris Chang in Hsinchu, Taiwan. It pioneered the dedicated foundry model, separating chip design from semiconductor manufacturing and allowing customers to produce chips without owning their own fabrication plants.
TSMC manufactures chips designed by companies such as Apple, Nvidia, AMD, and Qualcomm. Its advanced process technologies are used in high-performance computing, smartphones, automobiles, and other products.
TSMC is not the same kind of business as a fabless designer. Nvidia and Qualcomm primarily design chips, while TSMC fabricates many such designs. Intel, by contrast, has historically designed and manufactured its own processors, though it also operates foundry services.