TSMC rides AI wave to net nearly 70% of global foundry market in 2025

Taipei, March 13 (CNA) Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) saw its share of the global foundry market rise to almost 70 percent in 2025 amid booming demand for artificial intelligence.

Market information advisory firm TrendForce Corp. said Thursday that the contract chipmaker posted US$122.54 billion in sales, up 36.1 percent from a year earlier, accounting for 69.9 percent of the global market. Its share was up from 64.4 percent in 2024.

TSMC's closest rival, Samsung Electronics, was a distant second, posting US$12.63 billion in sales, down 3.9 percent from a year earlier, for a 7.2 percent share of the global market.

In the fourth quarter of 2025 alone, TSMC's share of the global foundry market stood at 70.4 percent, down from 71.0 percent in the third quarter, while its sales rose 2.0 percent from a quarter earlier to US$33.72 billion.

Although TSMC's shipments in the October to December period fell slightly from a quarter earlier, strong demand for its 3-nanometer process pushed average selling prices higher, boosting revenue, TrendForce said.

The global foundry market's 10 largest firms generated US$169.47 billion in combined sales in 2025, up 26.3 percent from a year earlier.

China's Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) ranked third with US$9.33 billion in sales, or a 5.32 percent market share, ahead of Taiwan's United Microelectronics Corp. with US$7.63 billion, or 4.35 percent, and U.S.-based GlobalFoundries with US$6.79 billion, or 3.87 percent.

Huahong Group of China came in sixth with US$4.50 billion, or 2.6 percent, followed by Israel's Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (US$1.57 billion, 0.89 percent), Taiwan's Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp. (US$1.56 billion, 0.89 percent), China's NexChip Co. (US$1.51 billion, 0.86 percent), and Taiwan's Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (US$1.40 billion, 0.80 percent).