TSMC, established in 1987, pioneered the dedicated pure-play semiconductor-foundry model.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company was founded in Hsinchu, Taiwan, by Morris Chang. Its model separated chip design from chip manufacturing: customers could design processors and other integrated circuits while relying on TSMC to fabricate them in advanced facilities.
This approach helped create the modern fabless semiconductor industry. Companies such as Nvidia, AMD, and many other designers can focus on architecture and software while outsourcing production to specialized foundries. TSMC manufactures chips for customers but generally does not sell competing branded processors of its own.
TSMC became a market-cap leader as demand grew for advanced chips used in smartphones, servers, graphics processors, and artificial-intelligence systems. It is sometimes confused with integrated manufacturers such as Intel or Samsung, which both design chips and operate significant manufacturing businesses.