The Geopolitics of Semiconductor Manufacturing

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), founded in 1987 by Morris Chang with backing from the Taiwanese government, pioneered the "pure-play foundry" business model, manufacturing chips designed by other companies rather than selling its own branded products. By the mid-2020s, TSMC produced the large majority of the world's most advanced logic chips at process nodes below 10 nanometers, giving Taiwan an outsized and strategically sensitive role in global supply chains for smartphones, AI accelerators, and defense electronics that far exceeds what its size or population would otherwise suggest.