TSMC Timeline

TSMC 44

1987 The pure-play foundry model — a new industry structure Before TSMC, semiconductor companies were vertically integrated: they designed their own chips and built their own factories (fabs). The capital cost of building a fab — hundreds of millions in 1987, tens of billions today — meant only large companies could compete in chip design. Chang's insight is that separating design from manufacturing creates enormous value: chip designers get access to world-class manufacturing without the capital burden; TSMC gets high-volume utilisation across many customers. The fabless chip company — Qualcomm, AMD, Apple Silicon, Nvidia — only becomes possible because of TSMC.
1987 Morris Chang founds TSMC Morris Chang, a 55-year-old Texas Instruments veteran, founds Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company on 21 February 1987 in the Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan, with $220 million in capital — half from the Taiwanese government, half from Philips. Chang's insight is radical: rather than designing chips and manufacturing them (the integrated device manufacturer model), TSMC will only manufacture chips for other companies. The pure-play foundry model does not yet exist. Everyone in the industry considers it either obvious or impossible.
1988 TSMC ships first wafers — 3 micron process TSMC ships its first commercial wafers in 1988 using a 3-micron process — transistors 3,000 nanometres wide, roughly 30 times larger than human DNA. The first customers are small chip design companies that cannot afford their own fabs. TSMC's initial capacity is modest — one fab, limited yields — but the model is validated. Morris Chang promises customers something novel and precious in the semiconductor industry: absolute confidentiality. TSMC will never compete with its customers by designing its own chips.
1990 TSMC goes public on Taiwan Stock Exchange TSMC lists on the Taiwan Stock Exchange in 1990, raising capital for its first major capacity expansion. The listing gives TSMC access to public markets and begins the long process of transforming a government-backed startup into a genuinely commercial enterprise. The stock will eventually become the most valuable on the Taiwan exchange by an enormous margin. TSMC's IPO on the NYSE follows in 1997 through American Depositary Receipts.
1991 TSMC reaches 1 micron process — miniaturisation accelerates TSMC achieves 1-micron process technology in 1991, enabling denser and faster chips. The relentless drive toward smaller transistors — Moore's Law in practice — requires enormous capital investment in new equipment and processes. TSMC's fabless customers begin to realise that outsourcing manufacturing to a dedicated foundry allows them to focus entirely on chip design while TSMC bears the capital cost and manufacturing expertise. The model's virtuous cycle begins: more customers fund more R&D, which attracts more customers.
1994 Fab 2 opens — TSMC scales up TSMC opens its second fab in 1994, significantly expanding capacity. By this point the foundry model is validated: a growing ecosystem of fabless chip companies — Marvell, Xilinx, MediaTek — depends on TSMC for manufacturing. TSMC's revenues have grown from near-zero in 1988 to $1.3 billion in 1994. The company is now the largest pure-play foundry in the world, a position it will never relinquish. UMC and GlobalFoundries will eventually challenge but never match it.
1996 TSMC reaches 350nm — PC era chips TSMC achieves 350 nanometre process technology in 1996, producing chips for the booming PC market — processors, graphics cards, memory controllers. The PC industry's insatiable demand for faster, cheaper chips perfectly suits TSMC's high-volume foundry model. TSMC's customer list expands to include graphics chip makers, networking chip companies and consumer electronics manufacturers. The company is growing at over 30% per year.
1997 TSMC lists on NYSE — global profile rises TSMC lists American Depositary Receipts on the New York Stock Exchange in October 1997, giving international investors direct access to the company and raising TSMC's profile among the global technology industry. The NYSE listing coincides with the Asian financial crisis, which briefly depresses TSMC's stock — but the company's fundamentals are strong and it recovers quickly. TSMC is now a genuinely global company, not just a Taiwanese one.
1998 Nvidia and TSMC — a foundational partnership Nvidia, founded in 1993 as a fabless chip designer, becomes one of TSMC's most important customers. The relationship between Nvidia and TSMC defines both companies for the next three decades: Nvidia designs ever more powerful GPUs, TSMC manufactures them at the cutting edge of process technology. By 2024 Nvidia is TSMC's largest customer, accounting for roughly 12% of its revenues. The partnership between the world's premier chip designer and the world's premier chip manufacturer is the axis around which the AI revolution turns.
1999 TSMC reaches 180nm — copper interconnects TSMC achieves 180 nanometre process technology with copper interconnects replacing aluminium — a major breakthrough that reduces electrical resistance and allows faster, denser chips. The move to copper is technically challenging and gives TSMC a significant yield advantage over competitors. By 1999 TSMC's revenues reach $5 billion and the company employs over 20,000 people. The dot-com boom creates voracious demand for chips of every kind.
2000 TSMC overtakes Intel in wafer capacity TSMC surpasses Intel to become the world's largest wafer fabrication company by capacity in 2000 — a landmark that would have seemed inconceivable when Morris Chang founded the company 13 years earlier. The dot-com bubble drives enormous chip demand; TSMC is running its fabs at full capacity. The subsequent bust (2001) is painful — revenues fall 35% — but TSMC emerges leaner and with a stronger competitive position than any integrated device manufacturer.
2001 Dot-com bust — TSMC weathers the storm The dot-com bubble collapses in 2001, devastating the semiconductor industry. TSMC's revenues fall from $5.3 billion in 2000 to $3.5 billion in 2001. The company cuts capital expenditure sharply and temporarily reduces hours. But the downturn also accelerates the shift toward the fabless model: IDMs (integrated device manufacturers) struggling with overcapacity are more willing to outsource manufacturing to TSMC. The bust strengthens the foundry model's long-term position.
2002 TSMC reaches 130nm — logic and memory converge TSMC achieves 130 nanometre process technology in 2002, producing chips for communications, networking and consumer electronics. At this scale, a transistor is smaller than a wavelength of visible light — a physical reality that requires exotic lithography techniques. TSMC's process engineers are among the most skilled in the world; the knowledge accumulated in manufacturing billions of chips at the frontier of physics is an almost impossible competitive moat to replicate.
2003 TSMC reaches 90nm — strained silicon TSMC achieves 90 nanometre process technology in 2003, introducing strained silicon — a technique that distorts the silicon crystal lattice to increase electron mobility and chip speed. Each new process node requires not just smaller lithography but entirely new materials, new deposition techniques and new transistor architectures. The engineering complexity compounds with every generation. TSMC's ability to execute node transitions reliably is the core of its competitive advantage.
2004 Morris Chang retires — then returns Morris Chang steps back from the CEO role in 2005, appointing co-CEOs Rick Tsai and F.C. Tsien. The succession proves troubled: TSMC loses process leadership to Intel and Samsung during this period. Chang returns as CEO in 2009 at the age of 77, reasserting direct control over the company's technology roadmap. His return marks the beginning of TSMC's decisive push to reclaim and extend its process leadership — a push that will culminate in 5nm and 3nm domination.
2007 TSMC reaches 65nm — Apple partnership begins TSMC achieves 65 nanometre process technology in 2007 — the same year Apple launches the iPhone. Apple's decision to design its own chips — beginning with the A4 processor for the original iPad in 2010 — will transform both companies. Apple brings design genius and enormous purchasing volume; TSMC brings manufacturing precision. The Apple-TSMC partnership becomes the most important customer relationship in semiconductor history, eventually accounting for 25% of TSMC's revenues.
2009 Morris Chang returns as CEO Morris Chang returns as CEO of TSMC in June 2009 at the age of 77, after the company loses process technology leadership during his absence. His return is immediately transformative: he increases R&D spending, accelerates the 28nm node development, and refocuses the company on technology leadership as the primary competitive strategy. The decision to pour capital into leading-edge nodes while competitors retreat to trailing-edge manufacturing proves decisive.
2010 Apple A4 — first Apple-TSMC chip Apple's A4 processor — the chip powering the original iPad (January 2010) and iPhone 4 (June 2010) — is manufactured by TSMC at 45nm. It is the first Apple-designed processor for iOS devices and the beginning of one of the most consequential technology partnerships in history. Apple's chip team, led by Jim Keller and later Johny Srouji, designs custom ARM-based processors; TSMC manufactures them with increasing precision. The A-series chips will eventually outperform Intel's laptop processors.
2011 TSMC reaches 28nm — mobile chip dominance TSMC achieves 28 nanometre process technology in 2011 — the node that powers the mobile revolution. Qualcomm's Snapdragon, Nvidia's Tegra, Apple's A5 and A6 processors are all manufactured at 28nm by TSMC. The 28nm node is one of the most profitable in TSMC's history — demand from mobile chip makers is so enormous that TSMC runs at 100% utilisation for years. The mobile internet boom and TSMC's 28nm dominance arrive simultaneously.
2012 TSMC revenues exceed $17 billion TSMC's revenues exceed $17 billion in 2012 — up from $3.5 billion in the dot-com bust of 2001. The company now employs 42,000 people and operates fabs across Taiwan. TSMC's capital expenditure exceeds $8 billion annually — more than most semiconductor companies' total revenues. The relentless investment in leading-edge manufacturing is funded by the enormous profits generated at the 28nm node. Morris Chang is engineering the widest technology moat in semiconductor history.
2013 TSMC reaches 20nm — FinFET transition begins TSMC achieves 20 nanometre process technology in 2013 and immediately begins the transition to FinFET transistors — a three-dimensional transistor architecture that replaces the flat planar transistor used since the 1960s. FinFETs allow continued scaling that would otherwise be physically impossible: the gate wraps around three sides of a silicon fin, giving much better control of the current. The FinFET transition requires completely new manufacturing processes and represents the most difficult engineering challenge in TSMC's history to that point.
2015 TSMC 16nm FinFET — Apple A9 chip TSMC achieves 16nm FinFET process technology in 2015, manufacturing Apple's A9 processor for the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. In an unusual arrangement, Samsung also manufactures the A9 at 14nm FinFET — providing an inadvertent public benchmark. Tests reveal that TSMC's A9 chips run cooler and with better battery life than Samsung's equivalent. Apple subsequently shifts entirely to TSMC for its A-series chips, ending its Samsung manufacturing relationship. The TSMC A9 victory is the decisive moment in the Apple-TSMC partnership.
2016 TSMC saves AMD — Zen architecture manufactured AMD, near bankruptcy in 2016 after years of Intel dominance, bets its survival on the Zen processor architecture designed by Jim Keller — and manufactures it at TSMC at 14nm. The Ryzen processors launched in 2017 stun the industry: AMD has achieved near-parity with Intel on performance at a fraction of the cost. TSMC's manufacturing quality is central to AMD's comeback. The AMD-TSMC relationship demonstrates that fabless chip design plus TSMC manufacturing can defeat any vertically integrated competitor.
2017 TSMC reaches 10nm — Intel falls behind TSMC achieves 10 nanometre process technology in 2017, a milestone that Intel — which had dominated semiconductor manufacturing for decades — fails to match on schedule. Intel announces repeated delays in its 10nm transition; TSMC ships 10nm chips on time. The moment marks a historic shift: for the first time since the 1990s, a company other than Intel leads the world in semiconductor manufacturing. TSMC's customers — Apple, Qualcomm, AMD — suddenly have access to more advanced chips than Intel's own products.
2018 Intel becomes a TSMC customer In one of the most dramatic competitive reversals in technology history, Intel — the company that had defined semiconductor manufacturing for decades — begins outsourcing chip production to TSMC in 2018. Intel's manufacturing delays force it to use TSMC for certain products while it struggles to fix its own processes. The company that once supplied chips to the world is now a customer of its former follower. The symbolic significance is enormous: the foundry model has definitively won.
2018 TSMC reaches 7nm — the most important node TSMC achieves 7 nanometre process technology in 2018 — arguably the most commercially significant node in semiconductor history. The 7nm node powers Apple's A12, AMD's Ryzen 3000, Nvidia's Ampere GPUs and Huawei's Kirin 980. At 7nm, TSMC packs 69 million transistors per square millimetre. Intel's competing 10nm process (nominally equivalent to TSMC's 7nm) arrives two years late. TSMC's 7nm revenues alone exceed many companies' total revenues.
2019 TSMC revenues reach $35 billion TSMC's revenues reach $35 billion in 2019 — more than double the level of 2012. The company now controls approximately 52% of the global foundry market by revenue, with no competitor within sight. Samsung is the only rival with leading-edge capability, but its foundry business remains far smaller. TSMC's capital expenditure exceeds $15 billion annually — a level of investment that creates a structural barrier to entry that no startup could overcome and no government can easily replicate.
2020 Morris Chang retires permanently Morris Chang, 88, fully retires from TSMC in 2018 after handing the reins to CEO C.C. Wei. Chang had transformed Taiwan from a low-cost manufacturing hub into the world's most sophisticated semiconductor manufacturing nation. His pure-play foundry model created an entirely new industry structure. Under his 30-year leadership TSMC grew from a $220 million startup to a $500 billion company. Wei continues Chang's strategy of relentless technology investment and customer neutrality.
2020 TSMC reaches 5nm — Apple M1 chip TSMC achieves 5 nanometre process technology in 2020 — packing 171 million transistors per square millimetre. The first major product is Apple's M1 chip, launched in November 2020, which stuns the laptop industry by outperforming Intel's best processors while consuming a fraction of the power. The M1's performance proves definitively that Apple Silicon manufactured by TSMC is years ahead of x86 processors. The PC industry's architecture is fundamentally disrupted by TSMC's 5nm node.
2020 US bans TSMC from supplying Huawei In May 2020, the US government expands export controls to prohibit TSMC from manufacturing chips for Huawei — China's largest technology company — without a US licence. The ban, effective September 2020, cuts Huawei off from the advanced chips it needs for its smartphones and 5G equipment. Huawei's smartphone market share collapses. The episode demonstrates that TSMC's technology — despite being a Taiwanese company — is effectively under US jurisdiction because it uses American equipment, software and designs. Geopolitics and semiconductors are now inseparable.
2021 Global chip shortage — TSMC at the centre A global semiconductor shortage beginning in 2020 and peaking in 2021 causes widespread disruption: car manufacturers halt production, games consoles are unavailable, electronics delivery times stretch to months. The shortage makes TSMC's strategic importance visible to politicians and the general public for the first time. The fact that virtually all advanced chips are manufactured in Taiwan — an island that China claims as its territory — triggers an urgent political response in Washington, Brussels and Tokyo.
2021 TSMC announces $100 billion three-year investment plan TSMC announces plans to invest $100 billion over three years — 2021 to 2023 — in new capacity and R&D. The commitment dwarfs any competitor's investment plans. The announcement comes as a global chip shortage, triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic's disruption to supply chains and simultaneous surge in electronics demand, causes widespread production shutdowns at car manufacturers and electronics companies. TSMC's central role in the global economy has never been more visible.
2022 TSMC reaches 3nm — the physics frontier TSMC achieves 3 nanometre process technology in 2022, packing 292 million transistors per square millimetre. At 3nm, transistors are approaching fundamental physical limits: a silicon atom is approximately 0.2 nanometres wide, meaning 3nm transistors are only about 15 silicon atoms across. Further scaling requires entirely new transistor architectures. TSMC's 3nm node powers Apple's A17 Pro (iPhone 15 Pro) and is the most advanced commercial chip manufacturing process in the world.
2022 US CHIPS Act — $52 billion for domestic semiconductor production The US CHIPS and Science Act is signed into law by President Biden on 9 August 2022, providing $52 billion in subsidies for domestic semiconductor manufacturing plus 25% tax credits for chip factory construction. The Act is explicitly aimed at reducing dependence on Taiwanese chip manufacturing and reducing China's ability to coerce Taiwan. TSMC, Samsung and Intel are the primary beneficiaries. The legislation marks the most significant US industrial policy intervention since the Manhattan Project.
2022 TSMC Arizona — first US fab in decades TSMC breaks ground on its first US semiconductor factory in Phoenix, Arizona in December 2022, with $12 billion in investment and US government support under the CHIPS Act. It is the first leading-edge semiconductor fab to be built in the United States in decades. The Arizona fab is geopolitically motivated: US officials want some TSMC production on American soil, outside China's potential military reach. TSMC also announces a second Arizona fab, bringing the total US investment to $40 billion.
2023 Nvidia H100 manufactured at TSMC — AI infrastructure Nvidia's H100 GPU — the most in-demand chip in the world during the AI boom — is manufactured by TSMC at the 4nm node. As demand for H100s explodes following ChatGPT's launch, every H100 that exists was made in a TSMC factory in Taiwan. The global AI build-out is constrained not by software, not by data, not by algorithms — but by TSMC's physical fab capacity. Jensen Huang and C.C. Wei's relationship is the most consequential business partnership of the AI era.
2023 TSMC market cap exceeds $500 billion TSMC's market capitalisation exceeds $500 billion in 2023, making it the most valuable company in Asia and one of the most valuable in the world. The company generates $70 billion in revenues and $27 billion in net profit — margins that reflect its monopoly position at the frontier of chip manufacturing. TSMC's gross margins of 54% are extraordinary for a manufacturing company. Morris Chang's foundry model, once dismissed as impossible, has created one of the most profitable businesses in industrial history.
2024 TSMC Arizona fab begins production TSMC's first Arizona fab begins production in 2024 — manufacturing chips at the 4nm node for Apple and other US customers. The fab employs 2,200 workers, though TSMC initially imports Taiwanese engineers to establish processes, causing friction with US labour advocates. The Arizona production is a political milestone: for the first time since the 1980s, cutting-edge chips are manufactured on US soil. A second Arizona fab at 3nm and a third at 2nm are planned for 2026 and 2028 respectively.
2024 TSMC market cap exceeds $1 trillion TSMC's market capitalisation crosses $1 trillion for the first time in 2024 — a milestone that reflects both the AI-driven explosion in chip demand and TSMC's irreplaceable position in the global technology supply chain. TSMC is the only company that can manufacture the world's most advanced chips at commercial scale. Its $1 trillion valuation makes it the most valuable company outside the United States and the most valuable Asian company in history.
2024 TSMC reaches 2nm — gate-all-around transistors TSMC achieves 2 nanometre process technology in 2024, introducing gate-all-around (GAA) nanosheet transistors — the most significant transistor architecture change since the FinFET transition of 2012. In a GAA transistor, the gate material surrounds the channel on all four sides, enabling even better current control than FinFET. The 2nm node packs approximately 500 million transistors per square millimetre. TSMC's N2 process is the most advanced in commercial production anywhere in the world.
2024 TSMC Japan fab opens — Kumamoto TSMC opens its first Japanese fab in Kumamoto, Japan in February 2024 — a joint venture with Sony and Denso producing 12nm and 16nm chips for Japanese automotive and consumer electronics customers. The Kumamoto fab is Japan's most advanced semiconductor facility in decades and a centrepiece of Japan's semiconductor revival strategy. A second Kumamoto fab at 6nm and 7nm is under construction. TSMC's geographic diversification strategy reflects geopolitical pressure to move some production outside Taiwan.
2025 TSMC Europe fab — Dresden, Germany TSMC breaks ground on its first European fab in Dresden, Germany in 2024 — a joint venture with Infineon, NXP and Bosch producing 12nm and 28nm chips for the European automotive and industrial sectors. The European Union subsidises the Dresden fab with €5 billion under its European Chips Act. The fab represents Europe's attempt to reduce dependence on Asian chip manufacturing for critical automotive electronics. TSMC now has fabs under construction or operating on four continents.
2025 TSMC revenues approach $100 billion TSMC's annual revenues approach $100 billion in fiscal 2025, driven by AI chip demand from Nvidia, Apple's continued growth, and AMD's server chip expansion. TSMC manufactures chips for all three of the world's most valuable semiconductor companies simultaneously. Its gross margins exceed 57% — extraordinary for any manufacturing company. The company that Morris Chang founded with $220 million in 1987 is now a cornerstone of the global economy, its fabs running 24 hours a day, every day, manufacturing the transistors on which the digital world runs.
2026 TSMC 1.6nm — angstrom era begins TSMC announces its N16A (1.6 nanometre) process for 2026 — entering what the industry now calls the 'angstrom era' (1 angstrom = 0.1 nanometres). At this scale, transistors are measured in dozens of silicon atoms. TSMC's roadmap extends to A14 (1.4nm) and beyond, though the physical limits of silicon-based transistors are now genuinely within sight. The company is investing in entirely new approaches — 2D materials, III-V compound semiconductors, and photonic computing — to sustain performance gains beyond the limits of silicon scaling.