TSMC
In plain wordsThe Taiwanese company that manufactures most of the world's advanced computer chips, including nearly all of the specialized chips used to train and run AI.
A Taiwanese semiconductor foundrysemiconductor foundry, n.: A factory company that manufactures chips designed by other companies. Taiwan's TSMC, the largest, makes nearly all of the world's most advanced AI chips. — a contract manufacturer that fabricates chips designed by other companies — and the world's largest, with a dominant share of production at the most advanced process nodesprocess node, n.: The label for a generation of chip-making technology, like '3 nanometer'. Smaller numbers mean newer, denser chips, but the number no longer measures any actual part of the chip.. Nearly all leading AI accelerators, including Nvidia's GPUs, AMD's Instinct chips and Google's TPUsTPU, abbr.: Google's own family of chips built specifically for AI, used to train and run its Gemini models and rented to other companies through its cloud., are made in its fabs, and its CoWoS advanced packagingadvanced packaging, n.: Ways of joining several chips very closely inside one package — side by side on a silicon base or stacked on top of each other — so they act almost like one bigger chip., which places processor dies beside stacks of high-bandwidth memoryhigh-bandwidth memory, n.: Very fast memory made by stacking memory chips on top of each other and placing them right next to the processor, so AI chips can be fed data quickly enough. on a silicon interposer, has been a principal bottleneck on AI chip supply since 2023. The concentration of leading-edge chipmaking in Taiwan makes the company central to debates over supply-chain resilience, export controls on AI chipsexport controls on AI chips, n.: Government rules that limit which countries and companies may buy the most advanced AI chips and the machines used to make them. The United States uses them mainly to slow China's progress in AI. and security in the Taiwan Strait; it has built fabs in Arizona, Japan and Germany, partly with support under the US CHIPS and Science ActCHIPS and Science Act, prop. n.: A 2022 US law that put tens of billions of dollars into building computer-chip factories and chip research in the United States, to reduce dependence on chips made in Asia..
The accelerator is sold out until TSMC adds more packaging capacity.
Origin
Founded in 1987 in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan, by Morris Chang, a former Texas Instruments executive, with backing from the Taiwanese government and Philips. It pioneered the 'pure-play' foundry model that lets 'fabless' firms such as Nvidia design chips without owning factories. C. C. Wei has been its chair and chief executive since 2024.
Related
- semiconductor foundrysemiconductor foundry, n.: A factory company that manufactures chips designed by other companies. Taiwan's TSMC, the largest, makes nearly all of the world's most advanced AI chips.
- process nodeprocess node, n.: The label for a generation of chip-making technology, like '3 nanometer'. Smaller numbers mean newer, denser chips, but the number no longer measures any actual part of the chip.
- advanced packagingadvanced packaging, n.: Ways of joining several chips very closely inside one package — side by side on a silicon base or stacked on top of each other — so they act almost like one bigger chip.
- NvidiaNvidia, prop. n.: An American chip company whose graphics processors became the main hardware for training and running AI, making it one of the most valuable companies in the world.
- ASMLASML, prop. n.: A Dutch maker of the giant machines that print circuit patterns onto chips. It alone can build the extreme-ultraviolet models on which today's most advanced chips, including AI chips, depend.
- export controls on AI chipsexport controls on AI chips, n.: Government rules that limit which countries and companies may buy the most advanced AI chips and the machines used to make them. The United States uses them mainly to slow China's progress in AI.
- high-bandwidth memoryhigh-bandwidth memory, n.: Very fast memory made by stacking memory chips on top of each other and placing them right next to the processor, so AI chips can be fed data quickly enough.
Mentioned in
NvidiaNvidia, prop. n.: An American chip company whose graphics processors became the main hardware for training and running AI, making it one of the most valuable companies in the world., AMDAMD, prop. n.: An American chip company that makes computer processors and graphics chips, and Nvidia's main rival in the chips used for artificial intelligence., ASMLASML, prop. n.: A Dutch maker of the giant machines that print circuit patterns onto chips. It alone can build the extreme-ultraviolet models on which today's most advanced chips, including AI chips, depend., CHIPS and Science ActCHIPS and Science Act, prop. n.: A 2022 US law that put tens of billions of dollars into building computer-chip factories and chip research in the United States, to reduce dependence on chips made in Asia., compute governancecompute governance, n.: Using control over the computer chips and data centers that AI depends on — who can buy them, where they go, how they are used — as a way to oversee powerful AI., HuaweiHuawei, prop. n.: A Chinese technology giant, known for telecom equipment and phones, that designs China's leading homegrown AI chips despite US trade restrictions., CerebrasCerebras, prop. n.: An American chip company that makes a single giant processor the size of a whole silicon wafer, used to train and run AI models very quickly.