TSMC is the world’s largest contract semiconductor manufacturer and a major market-cap leader.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, commonly called TSMC, produces chips designed by other companies. This business model is known as a pure-play foundry model because TSMC generally manufactures semiconductors rather than selling its own broad lineup of consumer-branded processors.
TSMC manufactures advanced chips for customers such as Nvidia, Apple, AMD, and Qualcomm. Its leading process technologies and large production scale have made it a critical supplier for smartphones, data centers, high-performance computing, and artificial-intelligence systems.
The company was founded in Taiwan in 1987 by Morris Chang. Its strategic importance also means that investors closely watch semiconductor demand, fabrication capacity, export controls, and geopolitical risks around Taiwan.