Overview
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is the world’s leading semiconductor fabrication company, producing chips for major technology companies including Apple, NVIDIA, and AMD. TSMC’s advanced process technologies (2nm, 14nm) are critical to global technology supply chains.
Recent Developments
- 2026-07-16: Additional 265B (~12 facilities); Q2 net profit ~60–64B; revenue growth guidance >40% (2026-07-17-tsmc-arizona-nist-commerce, 2026-07-17-tsmc-100b-arizona-ai-chip-expansion)
Build timeline demand-contingent per C.C. Wei ("market situation"); $100B is planned commitment, not spent cash.
- 2026-04-27: Taiwan court sentenced five individuals in trade secrets theft case. Chen Li-ming received 10 years prison for stealing 2nm and 14-angstrom process technologies. This is the first prosecution under Taiwan’s National Security Act for “national core key technologies.” (2026-04-27-tsmc-trade-secrets-sentence)
- 2025-2026: 2nm process technology projected for mass production in late 2025 or 2026
Key Facts
- Founded: 1987
- Headquarters: Hsinchu, Taiwan
- Market Position: World’s largest independent semiconductor foundry
- Key Technologies: 2nm, 14nm, and advanced process nodes
Trade Secrets Case (2026)
Individuals Sentenced
- Chen Li-ming: 10 years prison (former TSMC engineer, joined Tokyo Electron Taiwan)
- Chen Wei-chieh: 6 years prison (former TSMC engineer)
- Wu Ping-chun: 3 years (then-current TSMC engineer)
- Ko Yi-ping: 2 years (then-current TSMC engineer)
- Lu I-yin: 10 months suspended (Tokyo Electron Taiwan employee)
Corporate Penalties
- Tokyo Electron Taiwan: Fined NT4.6 million) - first corporation penalized under Taiwan’s National Security Act
- NT50 million to public treasury
Case Details
- Theft method: Smartphone cameras photographing sensitive documents between late 2023 and early 2025
- Discovery: TSMC internal security identified irregularities in July 2025
- Additional stolen secrets found on Tokyo Electron’s cloud storage (14nm technology)