TSMC only makes one thing: computer chips. While it produces all varieties of high-quality semiconductors—from memory and graphics chips to the kind of advanced, custom-designed microprocessors that power Apple’s iPhone—it made its name by focusing purely on precision, low-cost manufacturing in the fabrication plants (or “fabs”) it built in the Science Park and then scattered across the island. It doesn’t design chips. It takes other company’s designs and churns out the chips the world relies on, for everything from F-35s and HIMARS artillery systems to Android cellphones and smart TVs. Today
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