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In 2021, Apple was the largest customer of the Taiwanese semiconductor foundry TSMC, contributing a ** of the company's revenues. TSMC is the first company in the world that focused on the manufacturing of semiconductors and is one of Taiwan’s largest enterprises.

The world’s foundry

In the semiconductor industry, foundries manufacture computer chips based on the designs of so-called fabless companies. These companies solely focus on the design and sales aspects of the value chain. Notable fabless companies that work together with TSMC are Mediatek and Qualcomm. In a recent shift, Apple broke off its partnership with Intel and placed the focus on developing its own computer chips directly with TSMC instead, cutting out the middleman.

Caught in the crossfire

Since TSMC is the world’s largest semiconductor foundry, companies from around the globe depend on its products, including enterprises from mainland China. As a result, TSMC has found itself in the trade war between mainland China and the United States. Until 2020, the Huawei-owned company, HiSilicon, accounted for around ** percent of TSMC revenues. But in 2021, the company was no longer a customer. This was a result of Huawei and its restrictions in 2019 on the entity list of the United States government.