TSMC operates the world's largest contract semiconductor foundry by market capitalization and manufacturing scale.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, commonly called TSMC, is the leading dedicated semiconductor foundry. It manufactures chips designed by other companies rather than primarily selling processors under its own consumer brand.
TSMC was founded in Taiwan in 1987 by Morris Chang. Its business model helped separate chip design from fabrication, allowing companies such as Nvidia, AMD, and Apple to develop products while relying on specialized manufacturing capacity.
TSMC's importance to market-cap rankings comes from the strategic value of advanced chip production. The company invests heavily in fabrication plants and process technology, but it does not own every brand whose chips it manufactures. Nvidia, for example, designs many processors that TSMC fabricates.