TSMC manufactures advanced chips designed by companies such as Apple and Nvidia.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, usually abbreviated TSMC, pioneered the dedicated semiconductor foundry model. Rather than primarily selling chips under its own consumer brand, it manufactures integrated circuits designed by other companies. This separation lets chip designers focus on architecture and software while TSMC focuses on fabrication technology and production scale.
TSMC’s factories, called fabs, produce processors for smartphones, computers, graphics systems, and artificial-intelligence accelerators. Its leading process technologies have made the company strategically important to the global technology industry and helped it become one of the world’s most valuable semiconductor businesses by market capitalization.
TSMC should not be confused with Foxconn, which assembles many electronic products, or MediaTek, which designs chips. Samsung Electronics also operates semiconductor foundries, but TSMC is the company most closely associated with the pure-play foundry model.