Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (Traditional Chinese: 台灣積體電路製造股份有限公司, abbrev. TSMC; NYSE: TSM (ADR) LSE: TMSD TSEC:2330) is the world's largest dedicated independent semiconductor foundry. The company manufactures chips on behalf of other companies - usually either "fabless" semiconductor companies which just design microprocessors, or integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) such as Intel (INTC) or Texas Instruments (TXN), who provide full products to end-users and often have their own manufacturing capability. Semiconductors, such as integrated circuits (ICs) and transistors, are the individual "on-off" switches that make up an electronic device. Working in tandem, semiconductors constitute an mp3 player, computer processor, or wireless network adapter.

Fabless high-tech companies such as ATI (now AMD), Broadcom, NVIDIA, and OmniVision Technologies design the ICs manufactured by TSM. Foundries like TSM occupy a specific part of the semiconductor supply chain, and the high labor and capital equipment costs in the production of semiconductors creates a niche for these companies. TSM serves both fabless and vertically integrated semiconductor manufacturers, and it has 77% share of the North American market.^[1] Unlike some rivals, it is focused on miniaturizing its technology in the long-term while promoting larger wafers to its customers to earn short-term profits. However, TSM's short-term position is threatened by weak demand for consumer goods that use semiconductors in a credit crunch or slowdown in consumer spending. As a result, the company has begun shaving down capital investment for the near term to avoid having idle plants.^[2]

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