AI · SEMICONDUCTOR · FACT CHECK
SKD WIREPartly True
TSMC and ASML each occupy a dominant position in a critical segment of the AI semiconductor supply chain — TSMC in leading-edge contract chip manufacturing (foundry) and ASML in the equipment used to make such chips. But describing the two companies as outright monopolists in the AI semiconductor market is only partly accurate, given competition and alternatives that remain at the edges of both segments.
TSMC is the clear leader in advanced foundry services, manufacturing the majority of the world's most advanced chips, including the GPUs and AI accelerators designed by major fabless firms. ASML, headquartered in the Netherlands, is the sole supplier of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines required to pattern those leading-edge nodes.
Together, the two companies form a chokepoint: AI chip designers depend on TSMC for production, and TSMC — along with any other advanced chipmaker — depends on ASML for EUV equipment. This layered dependence underpins the perception of a duopoly of indispensables at the heart of the AI boom.
The term "monopoly" overstates the picture. TSMC faces foundry competition from Samsung Electronics and Intel, even though its share of advanced nodes is by far the largest. ASML faces no rival in EUV, but its broader lithography market includes competitors in older technologies, such as Nikon and Canon in deep ultraviolet (DUV) systems.
The AI semiconductor market itself is also broader than the two firms: it includes GPU and accelerator designers, memory suppliers such as SK hynix with its HBM products, and packaging and test providers. TSMC and ASML control essential inputs rather than the entire market.
The claim that TSMC and ASML are the two monopoly companies of the AI semiconductor market is therefore Partly True — accurate in capturing their near-unrivaled dominance in advanced foundry and EUV lithography, but imprecise in describing that dominance as outright monopoly over the market as a whole.