Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd. (TSMC) is a Taiwanese multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company, commonly known as TSMC. Founded in 1987 by Morris Chang, it pioneered the "pure-play" foundry business model, focusing exclusively on manufacturing chips designed by its customers. Headquartered in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan, TSMC is a publicly traded company on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE: 2330) and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: TSM). As of 2025, it is the world's largest dedicated chip foundry, holding approximately 70% of the global market share and employing over 83,000 people. The company reported revenues of $128.33 billion and a market capitalization of $1.87 trillion in the past 12 months.

TSMC's primary operations involve the manufacture of integrated circuits, mask services, and advanced packaging for a wide range of applications including high-performance computing, smartphones, IoT devices, automotive, and digital consumer electronics. They produce chips using advanced process nodes, from 2 microns down to 3 nanometers, for leading fabless semiconductor companies like Apple, NVIDIA, AMD, Broadcom, and Qualcomm.

In terms of patent litigation, TSMC exhibits an active two-way litigant posture, typical of a major operating company. The company has been involved in 2 tracked cases, appearing once as a plaintiff and once as a defendant. The defendant case, Advanced Integrated Circuit Process LLC v. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd., was filed in the Eastern District of Texas, a venue known for its plaintiff-friendly environment in patent disputes.

Notably, the plaintiff case, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd. v. Advanced Integrated Circuit Process LLC, was filed at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the USPTO. This indicates TSMC's strategy of challenging the validity of patents asserted against it, particularly from entities like Advanced Integrated Circuit Process LLC (AICP), which has been characterized as asserting patents received from Winbond Electronics (Nuvoton Technology Corporation Japan). AICP's parent company is AMTL LLC, which was formed in Delaware in April 2024.