TSMC manufactures most of the world’s advanced semiconductor chips for outside customers.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, commonly called TSMC, is the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry. Founded in Taiwan in 1987 by Morris Chang, it pioneered the pure-play foundry model: manufacturing chips designed by other companies without selling competing branded processors of its own.
Customers have included Apple, Nvidia, AMD, and many other chip designers. TSMC’s factories, known as fabs, use highly advanced manufacturing processes to produce chips for smartphones, computers, vehicles, and artificial-intelligence systems.
TSMC is headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan. It is not the same kind of business as a fabless designer such as Nvidia, nor exactly the same as an integrated manufacturer such as Intel. Its specialized manufacturing scale is a central reason investors value the company highly.