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How TSMC changed semiconductors
Why competitive foundry ownership and customer access can coexist, and why the quality of capacity matters.
Re-sourced edition. This explainer adapts the site’s educational material to the current claim registry. Material numbers appear only in the governed evidence cards below.
The foundry is an owner
A fabless customer can avoid owning a factory because a specialist foundry owns and operates the manufacturing system. This moves asset risk; it does not make the physical asset disappear.
Access is not the same as ownership
Customers can gain strong contractual access and co-optimization without holding the residual asset. The research question is which rights survive scarcity and what the customer must commit to receive them.
Treat concentration carefully
Market-share estimates, capacity statements, and capital plans measure different things. The evidence cards below preserve those distinctions.
Evidence
Claims supporting this explainer
TSMC planned $52 billion to $56 billion of capital expenditure in 2026.
Registry exception. The supplied registry labels this claim Corroborated but provides one source. Independent corroboration remains pending; the original state is preserved rather than silently rewritten.
Caveat. Update after future earnings reports.
Open source
TrendForce estimated TSMC had 70.2% of global foundry revenue in Q2 2025.
Caveat. Revenue share estimate, not advanced-node wafer share.
Open source
Intel is a caution, while TSMC is evidence that competitive, highly utilized manufacturing ownership can produce superior economics.
Caveat. Avoid claiming that all owned capacity creates value.