TSMC is the Taiwanese company that became a leading contract manufacturer of advanced chips and ranks among the world’s most valuable companies.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company was founded in 1987 by Morris Chang. It pioneered the dedicated foundry model, manufacturing chips designed by other companies instead of primarily selling chips under its own consumer brand.
This model allowed customers such as Apple, Nvidia, and AMD to design processors while relying on TSMC’s factories for production. TSMC’s market value is closely connected to demand for smartphones, data centers, high-performance computing, and artificial-intelligence hardware.
The company is headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan. It is often confused with chip designers or equipment makers, but TSMC’s defining role is semiconductor fabrication. Market-cap rankings can place it alongside consumer technology giants even though most people encounter its products indirectly inside other companies’ devices.