Intel’s chipmaking throne is challenged by a Taiwanese upstart

A logo of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) is seen at its headquarters in Hsinchu, Taiwan August 31, 2018. Picture taken August 31, 2018. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

For more than 30 years, Intel Corp has dominated chipmaking, producing the most important component in the bulk of the world’s computers. That run is now under threat from a company many Americans have never heard of. 

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co was created in 1987 to churn out chips for companies that lacked the money to build their own facilities. The approach was famously dismissed at the time by Advanced Micro Devices Inc founder Jerry Sanders. “Real men have fabs,” he quipped at a conference, using industry lingo for factories.