TSMC is a huge player in the tech industry. Being the world's largest producer of semiconductors, it has clients from Apple to Qualcomm, all the way to Nvidia and AMD. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, fresh off the company being valued at $5 trillion, recently went out to Hsinchu County in northwestern Taiwan to acknowledge TSMC's role in Nvidia's success.
"Without TSMC, there is no Nvidia today", the Nvidia chief said at TSMC's Sports Day last week (via Focus Taiwan). This is certainly true. You see TSMC chips in everything from the latest Blackwell GPUs (like the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080) to the AI chips that have helped prop up Nvidia's worth.
Huang told the crowd, "You are really the pride of Taiwan, you are also the pride of the world, and you know that you are also my pride". Huang was born in Taiwan and has Taiwanese citizenship, which might give extra reason for that last part.
TSMC is in a unique spot for Taiwan, being one of the biggest companies in the country. The looming threat of tariffs has caused some worries around supply, but it has a fab in Arizona, with more expected to come, and a $100 billion investment was made in the US earlier this year.
This is to say, TSMC is instrumental to more than just Nvidia. It has a history of getting to the smallest and most efficient process nodes earlier than anyone else. Blackwell is based on a custom 4 nm process, and the latest Apple chips use a 3 nm process.
Nvidia's Jensen Huang delivers emotional Mandarin speech at TSMC sports event, declaring 'without TSMC, there would be no NVIDIA today' and praising Taiwan chipmaker as 'pride of Taiwan and the world. ★ https://t.co/YX81jnpXhq ★ pic.twitter.com/8LBb6peBZPNovember 8, 2025
Effectively, the smaller the process, the higher the density of transistors, and therefore, the greater the levels of efficiency (in terms of die area). TSMC fabs in America are expected to get the 3 nm process by 2027, which should be in time for the RTX 60 series, but Taiwan wants to restrict TSMC from allowing the latest node process in fabs outside of the country, so it won't be matching the tech made at home.
Huang also told the TSMC crowd, "I want to thank you for helping me build Nvidia", and this could be part of a process to strengthen bonds with the manufacturer. As we've seen from the effect of the memory shortage, companies producing valuable tech will go to trusted partners before anyone else.
Nvidia, being a company worth a lot of money and with its fingers in many virtual pies, will want to make sure ties to TSMC remain as strong as possible. And attending a sports day to point out the very real fact that TSMC is part of Nvidia's success seems like just an average weekend for Team Green.
