Numbers

~$90B

up ~30% YoY; >50% gross margin

[TSMC 2024 annual report + Acquired episode] · as of 2024-12

• Ben:This TSMC episode is one of the best Acquired episodes ever, and interestingly, it predates our NVIDIA episodes. We did it way back in 2021 when the Acquired audience was about 12% the size of what it is today.
  [Acquired TSMC, ch. Intro (2025 re-release)]
  EpisodeCite

~$1.0T

world's most valuable semiconductor company; ~10x its 2014 cap

[Public market data] · as of 2024-12

• Ben:Today's episode is on TSMC or the Taiwan Semiconductor Company. It's your classic 'most people have never heard of it, but it's the ninth largest company in the world' episode.
  [Acquired TSMC, ch. Intro]
  EpisodeCite

~92% Taiwan / ~67% TSMC at ≤7nm

Acquired hosts cite '~92% of the world's most-advanced ≤7nm chips'. Verified: ~92% is the TAIWAN country-level figure (TSMC + UMC + others). TSMC alone holds ~67% of foundry market and ~64-72% of advanced logic at ≤7nm per TechInsights / TrendForce. TSMC's company-level share exceeds 90% only at the ≤3nm cutoff. Either framing is defensible — country-level (~92%) OR ≤3nm (≥90%) — but conflating them overstates TSMC's individual position at ≤7nm.

[TechInsights (Scotten Jones, Mar 2024) + TrendForce Q4 2024 foundry market share + Acquired episode TSMC] · as of 2024-12

• Ben:They make literally every chip in every iPhone sold today and soon to be in every Mac sold. If you're excited at all about NVIDIA, AMD, Qualcomm, or even any of the chips that Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple are making, all of those chips or nearly all of them are actually made by TSMC, along with all the chips in your cars, in your smart home devices, in fighter jets, and everything.
  [Acquired TSMC, ch. Intro]
  EpisodeCite
• Backup research (parallel research subagent, 2026-05-26): the '~92% of leading-edge' framing is a TAIWAN country-level number (TSMC + UMC + others). At the company level, TechInsights (Scotten Jones, March 2024) finds TSMC produces roughly 64% of advanced silicon at ≤10nm/≤7nm — not 90%. TSMC's company-level share crosses 90% only at the ≤3nm cutoff. The Acquired '92%' is defensible only as Taiwan-as-country or as ≤3nm.
  [TechInsights via SemiWiki — 'No, TSMC does not make 90% of advanced silicon' (2024)]
  SourceCite
• TrendForce Q4 2024: TSMC holds 67.1% of the overall foundry market — the dominant single foundry but not the 90%+ figure when the cutoff is the broader leading-edge logic basket.
  [TrendForce — TSMC's advanced processes remain resilient (Q4 2024)]
  SourceCite

~$30B

more than Apple, Samsung, or Intel; each new fab costs $15-20B+

[TSMC 2024 annual report] · as of 2024-12

• TSMC's capex was ~$30B in 2024 — cumulative 2015-2024 is ~$198.5B. See the semiconductor-supply thread page for the full per-company series and the live API endpoint.
  [TSMC investor relations + this site's /api/semiconductor-capex]
  SourceCite

$15-20B

2nm fab estimated $25B+; the most expensive industrial facilities ever built

[IBS estimates + TSMC disclosures] · as of 2024

22% (down from 25% FY2023)

TSMC's 2024 Annual Report discloses the largest customer at 22% of net revenue, down from 25% in 2023 and 23% in 2022. Apple is widely identified as the unnamed largest customer. NVIDIA's HPC orders have risen to ~10% in 2024 and are projected to overtake Apple as TSMC's #1 customer by 2026.

[TSMC 2024 Annual Report (filed with TWSE) + CNBC reporting on customer concentration shift] · as of 2024-12

• Ben:You will see Apple slide somewhere announcing the next iPhone talking about how it's a 3-nanometer process. They'll take all the credit for it. And TSMC is totally fine with that because their job is not to market. It's to empower their customers.
  [Acquired TSMC, ch. Pure-play philosophy]
  EpisodeCite
• Backup research (parallel research subagent, 2026-05-26): TSMC's 2024 Annual Report (filed with TWSE) discloses the largest customer at 22% of net revenue, down from 25% in 2023 and 23% in 2022. Apple is widely identified as the unnamed largest customer. The Acquired ~25% figure was accurate for FY2023 but has drifted as NVIDIA's HPC orders rose.
  [TechSoda / TSMC 2024 Annual Report explainer]
  SourceCite
• NVIDIA represented ~10.1% of TSMC revenue in 2024 and is projected to overtake Apple as TSMC's largest customer by 2026, per CNBC reporting on TSMC's customer concentration shift.
  [CNBC — NVIDIA set to supplant Apple as TSMC's largest customer (Jan 2026)]
  SourceCite

~80,000

concentrated in Taiwan; expanding US (Arizona) and Japan (Kumamoto) presence under geo-political pressure

[TSMC 2024 annual report] · as of 2024-12