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TSMC

4 min readUpdated September 2026
TSMC
Type
Semiconductor foundry
Founded
1987, Hsinchu, Taiwan
Key business
Contract chip manufacturing (pure-play foundry) and advanced packaging
Latest results
Q2 2026 revenue NT$1.27 trillion (US$40.2 billion), up 36% year-on-year
Market position
About 72.5% of global foundry revenue (Q2 2026)
Related
NVIDIA, High Bandwidth Memory, AI Chip Export Controls
TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) is the world's largest contract chipmaker and the principal manufacturer of the advanced processors at the centre of the artificial intelligence boom. Founded in 1987 and headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan, the company pioneered the pure-play foundry model — manufacturing chips designed by other firms — and today fabricates silicon for customers including Nvidia, Apple, AMD, Qualcomm and MediaTek.[1][4] Its advanced packaging technologies, which assemble multiple chiplets and memory into a single package, have become both a critical enabler and a bottleneck for AI accelerators.[4]

Position in the AI Boom

TSMC's finances have scaled with AI demand. In July 2026 the company reported record second-quarter revenue of NT$1.27 trillion (about US$40.2 billion), up 36 per cent year-on-year and slightly ahead of analyst estimates, with net income of NT$706.56 billion; revenue for June alone rose 67.9 per cent year-on-year.[1][2] Growth continued into the second half: August revenue reached NT$514.8 billion (US$16.35 billion), up 53.3 per cent year-on-year for a fourth consecutive monthly gain, and the company raised its capital spending and full-year revenue outlook while describing AI-related demand as "extremely robust".[3] TSMC held about 72.5 per cent of global foundry revenue in the second quarter of 2026, according to TrendForce data, and guided third-quarter revenue to US$44.6–45.8 billion.[2][3]

Technology and Capacity

The company's lead over rivals rests on leading-edge manufacturing and packaging. At its 2026 Taiwan Technology Symposium, TSMC detailed 2-nanometre (N2) family progress — including the A13, A12 and N2U process technologies — and said it plans to start five new fabs in 2026, with 2nm capacity growing at a compound annual rate of about 70 per cent between 2026 and 2028.[4] Roughly 25 customer 2nm chip designs had been finalised with more than 70 more in development, and the A16 process remained on track for production in the second half of 2026.[4] In advanced packaging, TSMC announced mass production of its largest chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) solution with yields above 98 per cent, and projected CoWoS and SoIC capacity to expand by more than 80 per cent annually through 2027 — a response to demand that has kept packaging lines fully booked and made advanced packaging, rather than wafer fabrication alone, the binding constraint on AI chip supply.[3][4]

>See Also

🇲🇾Malaysian Context

Malaysia's link to TSMC is through the semiconductor supply chain that surrounds advanced chipmaking. Malaysia accounts for roughly 13 per cent of global outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) output, with multinationals such as Intel, Micron and Infineon operating plants in Penang, Kulim and Johor.[5][6] As AI chips shift value toward advanced packaging — the same specialty where TSMC's CoWoS leads — Malaysia is attempting to move up the value chain: Intel's Penang advanced packaging complex, built around its EMIB and Foveros technologies, is due to begin operations in 2026, and the Malaysia Advanced Packaging Consortium, formed by Inari, Pentamaster, NSW Automation, SkyeChip and FusionAP, targets 7 per cent of the global advanced packaging market by 2035, backed by a National Semiconductor Strategy that earmarks at least RM25 billion in public funding and aims to train 60,000 engineers.[5][6][7] For Malaysian suppliers and talent, TSMC's capacity expansion sets the pace of the wider AI hardware cycle — and keeps advanced packaging, in the words of local industry commentary, "Malaysia's next AI test".[7]

References

  1. ↑Reuters. (2026). TSMC posts record revenue in second quarter on AI demand. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/tsmc-q2-revenue-jumps-36-year-earlier-beating-market-expectations-2026-07-13/
  2. ↑TSMC. (2026). 2026 Q2 quarterly results. https://investor.tsmc.com/english/quarterly-results/2026/q2
  3. ↑Quartz. (2026). TSMC's monthly revenue surged 53% to a record high on AI chip demand. https://qz.com/tsmc-record-august-revenue-ai-chip-demand-091026
  4. ↑Design & Reuse. (2026). TSMC highlights 2nm and advanced packaging progress. https://www.design-reuse.com/news/202530784-tsmc-highlights-2nm-and-advanced-packaging-progress/
  5. ↑Business Times. (2026). Beyond the assembly line – Can Malaysia climb the semiconductor value chain? https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/wealth/wealth-investing/beyond-assembly-line-can-malaysia-climb-semiconductor-value-chain
  6. ↑CRN Asia. (2026). Malaysia's local semiconductor players are making their advanced packaging move, and the stakes could not be higher. https://www.crnasia.com/news/2026/components-and-peripherals/malaysia-s-local-semiconductor-players-are-making-their-adva
  7. ↑The Edge Malaysia. (2026). Opinion: Advanced packaging is Malaysia's next AI test. https://theedgemalaysia.com/node/818355
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