TSMC Dominates Semiconductor Market with Record-Breaking 70% Share in Q2 2025

TSMC's foundry dominance hits new heights as global revenues smash records -- 14.6% QoQ jump sees growth for Samsung, but TSMC's market share climbs to 70.2%

The second quarter of 2025 was a windfall for the world's chipmakers, with international foundry revenue climbing 14.6% to an unprecedented $41.7 billion. But the real story is Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker, which seized a staggering 70% market share on the back of soaring demand for AI accelerators, smartphones, and next-gen PCs. TrendForce's latest data shows TSMC pulling in just over $30 billion for the quarter, its strongest showing yet. That kind of dominance doesn't happen by accident. As rivals stumble, TSMC has leveraged its process leadership to lock down contracts for the chips powering everything from Apple's iPhones to Nvidia's data-center GPUs. Nearly three-quarters of TSMC's sales now come from 7nm nodes and below, with 3nm alone accounting for roughly a quarter of wafer revenue. Those are the wafers underpinning Blackwell GPUs, AMD's Zen 5 CPUs, and Apple's M-series Macs. This timing matters. Smartphone demand rebounded after a bruising few years, while PC makers stocked up ahead of a wave of AI-capable laptops set to arrive this fall. Nvidia, meanwhile, continues to hoover up every high-performance wafer it can find, driving record shipments of GPUs for both data centers and consumers. TSMC's advanced packaging capabilities -- critical for stacking memory and compute together -- gave it an edge its competitors can't match at scale. By comparison, Samsung managed a respectable 9% growth in its foundry business but remains a distant second with 7.2% of the market. Its wins include smartphone silicon and the chip at the heart of Nintendo's Switch 2, but the gulf between the Korean firm and TSMC has never been wider. Intel's fledgling foundry operation is still a fraction of the size, despite the billions being poured into U.S. fab projects. According to the report, China's SMIC dipped 1.7% in revenue from last quarter, thanks to advanced-node production issues and the resulting shipment delays, putting it in third place, with 5.1% market share. For PC enthusiasts and gamers, the implications are twofold. The good news is that more advanced chips are flowing than ever, easing the kind of shortages that left GPU shelves empty in 2021. The bad news? They won't be cheaper. TSMC's upcoming 2nm node is expected to carry a price premium over 3nm, and Nvidia has already nudged GPU pricing upward to compensate for rising wafer costs. That tension -- more supply, higher cost -- defines the silicon industry in 2025. And with TSMC now controlling seven out of every ten dollars spent in the foundry market, it's clear that the company is doing more than just riding the AI wave.

TSMC hits record 70% foundry market share, making a synapse singeing $30.24 billion in revenue last quarter alone

(Image credit: People walk past a TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) logo at the Taiwanese semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company building in Hsinchu.) TSMC is currently enjoying a record-breaking 70.2% market share, owing to an eye-watering $30.24 billion revenue made during 2025's second quarter alone. Do you reckon this top foundry could spare a few dollar bills to wrap up my own chips? No? That's an 18% quarter-upon-quarter increase though TSMC is hardly the only winner, according to Trendforce. The Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer is definitely top of the pile, global foundry revenue during the same period was up 14.6% compared to Q1, raking in a total of $41.7 billion. For a little bit of added context, 0.2% of that is still $83.4 million. So, yes, the fact TSMC has 70.2% of that pie is huge. As TSMC accelerates its plans for 1.4 nm silicon manufacturing by moving ahead with plans to build new factories, this foundry doesn't look set to cool off any time soon. Trendforce's investigation attributes the industry-wide uptick to upcoming seasonal demand for new devices -- such as smartphones, PC parts, and servers -- tag-teaming with "China's consumer subsidy program spurring early stocking." TSMC specifically is riding the wave thanks to "major smartphone clients entering their ramp-up cycle" and demands for "AI GPUs, notebooks, and PCs pushing wafer shipments" into an even higher gear. Speaking of sought after devices, Samsung Foundry are also feasting thanks to the Nintendo Switch 2. Banking $3.6 billion in Q2, Samsung's foundry has a market share of 7.3% -- that earns it second place among the top ten foundries, but it's really not even close. TSMC's first place share may as well be represented as a distant dot on the horizon ahead. Even with such astronomical financial success, it's not all been smooth sailing for TSMC. Recently news broke of at least one foundry employee being fired and several more arrested by Taiwanese authorities amid allegations of corporate espionage. Besides these troubles at home, it's hard to ignore the far-reaching messiness of the tariff situation overseas. For instance, rumours earlier this year suggested that chips made in TSMC's Arizona-based foundry -- a selection that may well later include the anticipated 1.4 nm silicon -- could cost "as much as 30%" more.

TSMC's Q2 2025 Market Share Crossed 70 Percent, With Increased Demand For Its 2nm Wafers Set To Raise That Figure In 2026

The advancements and planning done by TSMC have ensured that for the next couple of generations, there will be no foundry to challenge the semiconductor behemoth's dominance. The latest data reveals that, for the second quarter of 2025, the company's revenue market share crossed 70 percent. Various factors were responsible for this growth, with the total industry revenue growing by an impressive 14.6 percent compared to the previous quarter, fueled by national subsidies and the aggressive stocking of smartphones, AI, PC, and server products. For Q2 2025, TrendForce reports that TSMC's market share was 70.2 percent, up from 67.6 percent in Q1 2025. During a single quarter, the Taiwanese giant's quarterly revenue growth was 18.5 percent, with its earnings estimated to reach $30.239 billion for this period, up from $25.517 billion. Unfortunately, one company's gain is another's loss, especially when both compete in the same sector. Samsung, which is TSMC's closest rival in this space, had its market share drop from 7.7 percent to 7.3 percent for this period, though its quarterly revenue gain was 9.2 percent. The Korean firm was estimated to have generated $3.159 billion in Q2 2025, making it just a fraction of what TSMC earned. The latter's market share is estimated to reach 75 percent in 2026, in part due to increased demand for its 2nm technology, with the company reportedly commencing mass production in the fourth quarter of 2025. Just like before, Apple has seemingly secured the initial supply of these wafers, but TSMC's growth will be catalyzed by orders from Qualcomm, MediaTek, Broadcom, and others. To stay ahead in the race, TSMC is also said to be prepping the construction of a facility on its home turf, one that will mass manufacture 1.4nm chips, with the initial investment said to reach a mammoth $49 billion. TSMC certainly has an ambitious drive, which has resulted in the company attaining an unrivaled position in the market. However, we cannot ignore Samsung's progress, as the latter is preparing its 2nm GAA process and intends to launch the first chipset fabricated on this technology, the Exynos 2600, before its rival to earn some bragging rights.