TSMC, or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, was founded in 1987 by Morris Chang and pioneered the dedicated semiconductor foundry model.
A foundry manufactures chips designed by other companies rather than selling mainly its own branded processors. This separation allowed many “fabless” designers to create advanced chips without building and operating their own expensive fabrication plants.
TSMC’s customers have included major designers of smartphone, computing, graphics, and artificial-intelligence processors. Its manufacturing scale and advanced process technologies made it one of the world’s most valuable semiconductor companies by market capitalization.
TSMC is not the same as Intel or Samsung Electronics. Intel historically emphasized its own processor designs and manufacturing, while Samsung operates both chip-design and manufacturing businesses. TSMC’s central identity is contract chip manufacturing for external designers.