TSMC is the world’s largest dedicated independent semiconductor foundry.
The company’s full name is Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. Morris Chang founded it in 1987 in Hsinchu, Taiwan, creating a business model focused on manufacturing chips designed by other companies. That separation allowed customers to design processors without owning their own advanced fabrication plants.
TSMC manufactures products for customers such as Nvidia, Apple, AMD, and Qualcomm. It does not generally sell chips under a consumer brand of its own, which distinguishes it from integrated device manufacturers such as Intel and Samsung Electronics.
Its importance to market valuations comes from the enormous cost and technical difficulty of leading-edge chip production. TSMC’s shares trade in Taiwan, while American depositary receipts trade in the United States under TSM. Market capitalization rankings can fluctuate with exchange rates and share prices, but its foundry leadership is a long-standing industry fact.