TSMC, formally Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, became the world's largest dedicated semiconductor foundry.
Morris Chang founded TSMC in Taiwan in 1987 with a business model focused on manufacturing chips designed by other companies. This separated chip design from chip fabrication and allowed customers to use TSMC factories without competing directly against a chipmaker's own product lines. The model helped create the modern fabless semiconductor industry.
TSMC manufactures processors and other advanced chips for customers such as Apple, Nvidia, and AMD. It does not generally sell consumer devices under a major TSMC brand; its role is the production infrastructure behind many familiar products. Demand for advanced chips has made TSMC one of Asia's most valuable public companies and a regular fixture in global market-cap comparisons. It is often confused with Nvidia, but Nvidia designs chips and accelerators while TSMC manufactures chips for many customers.