(NYSE: TSM) and Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) are often compared to each other, but the two chipmaking giants operate very different business models. TSMC is the world's largest third-party contract chipmaker, and it only manufactures chips for "fabless" chipmakers like AMD (NASDAQ: AMD), Apple, and Qualcomm. It doesn't produce any first-party chips of its own.
Intel is the world's largest producer of x86 CPUs for PCs and data centers. It's an integrated device manufacturer (IDM) that manufactures those chips at its own foundries. It's opened up those foundries to third-party customers in recent years to compete against TSMC in the contract chipmaking space, but it still generates most of its revenue from its own chips.
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Source Fool.com