TSMC is the world's largest contract semiconductor manufacturer, a role that supports its enormous stock-market value.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, commonly called TSMC, specializes in making chips designed by other companies. This business model is known as a foundry. Rather than selling mainly its own branded processors, TSMC manufactures advanced chips for customers such as Apple, Nvidia, and many other technology firms.
TSMC was founded in Taiwan in 1987 by Morris Chang, who helped establish the dedicated-foundry model. The company invested heavily in increasingly small manufacturing processes and became central to the global supply chain for high-performance computing, smartphones, and artificial intelligence.
TSMC is often confused with Samsung Electronics or Intel because all three are major semiconductor companies. Their strategies differ: Samsung makes both its own products and chips for customers, Intel historically focused on its own processors, and TSMC is especially identified with contract manufacturing.