TSMC is the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry, manufacturing chips designed by other companies.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company was founded in 1987 by Morris Chang in Hsinchu, Taiwan. Its business model helped popularize the pure-play foundry: customers design chips, while TSMC manufactures them without competing directly by selling its own branded processors.
This arrangement made TSMC a crucial supplier for companies such as Apple, Nvidia, and AMD. Its advanced process technologies and enormous fabrication capacity support processors used in phones, computers, data centers, vehicles, and artificial-intelligence systems. Investor demand for exposure to semiconductor growth has made TSMC one of the world’s most valuable public companies.
TSMC is not the same as a chip designer or equipment maker. Intel designs and manufactures chips, while ASML makes lithography systems used by chip factories. TSMC primarily provides manufacturing services.