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computer science

TSMC

TSMC is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand TSMC rather than just read about it. In short: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (Chinese: 台灣積體電路製造股份有限公司; Taiwan Semiconductor or TSMC, stylised in all lowercase) is a Taiwanese multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company. Headquartered in Hsinchu Science Park, it is one of the world's largest non-US companies by market capitalisation.

TSMC — main illustration
TSMC — illustration

Key takeaways

  • TSMC belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect TSMC to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of TSMC from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (Chinese: 台灣積體電路製造股份有限公司; Taiwan Semiconductor or TSMC, stylised in all lowercase) is a Taiwanese multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company. Headquartered in Hsinchu Science Park, it is one of the world's largest non-US companies by market capitalisation. It holds a commanding majority in the semiconductor foundry market, accounting for approximately 70% of the global market share. As the leading dedicated contract chipmaker, it serves as the main supplier for Nvidia, Apple, Broadcom, and Qualcomm. The company has grown rapidly due to the artificial intelligence boom and its importance in the creation of advanced chips needed for AI. Its role as a supply chain bottleneck raises concerns that a disruption could cause another worldwide chip shortage. Although the government of the Republic of China is the largest individual shareholder, the majority of TSMC is owned by foreign investors. In 2025, the company was ranked 38th in the Forbes Global 2000. Taiwan's exports of integrated circuits amounted to $184 billion in 2022, nearly 25 percent of Taiwan's GDP. TSMC constitutes about 30 percent of the Taiwan Stock Exchange's main index. TSMC was established in 1987 as a joint venture between Taiwan’s government, the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), and private investors. Morris Chang founded the company to commercialise semiconductor research originally developed at ITRI, becoming the world’s first dedicated semiconductor foundry. When Chang retired in 2018, after 31 years of TSMC leadership, Mark Liu became chairman and C. C. Wei became Chief Executive. It has been listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange since 1993; in 1997 it became the first Taiwanese company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Since 1994, TSMC has had a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.4 percent in revenue and a CAGR of 16.1 percent in earnings. Most fabless semiconductor companies such as AMD, Apple, ARM, Broadcom, Marvell, MediaTek, Qualcomm, and Nvidia are customers of TSMC, as are emerging companies such as Allwinner Technology, HiSilicon, Spectra7, and UNISOC. Programmable logic device companies Xilinx and previously Altera also make or made use of TSMC's foundry services. Some integrated device manufacturers that have their own fabrication facilities, such as Intel, NXP, STMicroelectronics, and Texas Instruments, outsource some of their production to TSMC. TSMC has a global capacity of about thirteen million 300 mm-equivalent wafers per year as of 2020 and produces chips for customers with process nodes from 2 microns to 3 nanometres. TSMC was the first foundry to market 7-nanometre and 5-nanometre (used by the 2020 Apple A14 and M1 SoCs, the MediaTek Dimensity 8100, and AMD Ryzen 7000 series processors) production capabilities, and the first to commercialise ASML's extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography technology in high volume.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

TSMC illustration
TSMC illustration
TSMC: The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070, which uses the GP104 die manufactured by TSMC on its 16 nm node
The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070, which uses the GP104 die manufactured by TSMC on its 16 nm node
TSMC: President Ma Ying-jeou with Morris Chang during his visit to Fab 15, 2015
President Ma Ying-jeou with Morris Chang during his visit to Fab 15, 2015
TSMC: Logo of European joint-venture with Bosch, Infineon and NXP in Germany.
Logo of European joint-venture with Bosch, Infineon and NXP in Germany.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with TSMC

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what TSMC claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to TSMC before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about TSMC ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of TSMC

In research
TSMC appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses TSMC in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
TSMC is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1993 initial public offerings, Companies in the Dow Jones Global Titans 50, Companies in the S&P Asia 50, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for TSMC outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.
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How to study TSMC in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what TSMC means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain TSMC out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is TSMC in simple terms?

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (Chinese: 台灣積體電路製造股份有限公司; Taiwan Semiconductor or TSMC, stylised in all lowercase) is a Taiwanese multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company. Headquartered in Hsinchu Science Park, it is one of the world's largest non-US…

Why does TSMC matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study TSMC?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on TSMC.

Tags

  • 1993 initial public offerings
  • Companies in the Dow Jones Global Titans 50
  • Companies in the S&P Asia 50
  • Companies in the Taiwan Capitalization Weighted Stock Index
  • Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange
  • Companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange
  • Computer companies of Taiwan
  • Computer hardware companies
  • Electronics companies established in 1987
  • Electronics companies of Taiwan
  • Foundry semiconductor companies
  • MEMS factories

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