TSMC is the world’s largest contract chipmaker by market capitalization. The company manufactures semiconductors designed by other firms, rather than mainly selling chips under its own consumer brand.
TSMC stands for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. Morris Chang founded it in 1987, and the business helped establish the dedicated foundry model. Under that model, customers design chips while TSMC operates the factories, or fabs, that manufacture them.
The company produces chips for industries including smartphones, computers, automobiles, networking, and artificial intelligence. Its advanced manufacturing processes have made it a crucial supplier to major chip designers. TSMC is often compared with Intel and Samsung, but their business mixes differ: Intel historically designed and manufactured many of its own processors, while Samsung has major memory, consumer-electronics, and foundry operations. Market capitalization reflects investors’ valuation of the entire company, not just one product line.