35 AI Superstars According to Goldman Sachs

7. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 156  

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM) makes and sells integrated circuits and semiconductors. The company is one of the first chipmakers in the world that exclusively focuses on designing and manufacturing chips for other companies. Before TSM became the global phenomenon that it is today, most businesses designed their own chips and outsourced manufacturing. However, as the demand for chips skyrockets, this has changed. TSM has many important customers because of the first-mover advantage, including AI giants like NVIDIA, Apple, AMD, QUALCOMM, and Broadcom, among others. TSM is a pure-play foundry stock, ahead of other firms in the space. For example, GlobalFoundries, a TSM competitor, has an annual revenue of $7 billion compared to $70 billion for TSM.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM) operations could be impacted by the recent devastation in North Carolina caused by Hurricane Helene. The hurricane has damaged the production of quartz in Spruce Pine mines. This quartz is crucial for semiconductor manufacturing. The two companies that control more than 85% of the global quartz market in semis own the rights to mining for quartz in North Carolina.