90%+ of Advanced NodesWide moat

TSMC's overall foundry share is around 70%, but at the leading edge¹ — the advanced nodes where AI accelerators and flagship processors are built — its share climbs to upwards of 90%. This near-exclusivity on the most advanced, most valuable production is the concentrated core of the moat. The overall-market number understates the dominance that matters: in the part of the industry with the highest value, the highest margins, and the fastest growth, TSMC is not merely the leader but very nearly the sole viable supplier.

This concentration at the top is what makes TSMC indispensable to the AI era. The companies designing the chips that power artificial intelligence have, in practice, nowhere else to go for leading-edge manufacturing at the scale and yield they need — Samsung is a distant second with yield struggles, and Intel's foundry is still trying to establish itself. So the explosive demand for AI silicon flows overwhelmingly to TSMC, and with it the pricing power and the profits. A 90%-plus share of the leading edge is as close to a monopoly on the chips the future depends on as a company with nominal competitors can hold, and it is where TSMC's wide moat is at its deepest.