By Omor Ibne Ehsan
Publication Date: 2026-02-04 16:55:00
Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE:TSM) is the backbone of the entire semiconductor sector, but it has only started trading like it in recent years. TSM stock is up by over 220% since the end of 2023 and still trails most big-name fabless AI stocks, even though this is the company that manufactures those chips and holds the cards.
Without Taiwan Semiconductor, Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), AMD (NASDAQ:AMD), or Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) will not be able to sell their most popular AI chips.
The latter is the most similarly-sized semiconductor company to TSMC. It has a market cap of $1.52 trillion, whereas TSM has a market cap of $1.42 trillion. Many investors are buying Broadcom despite Taiwan Semiconductor having twice the sales and profits. The rationale is that Broadcom has the higher growth potential as it has products rivaling Nvidia, and the software stack also gives it more sway.
You’d be tempted to buy into both, but you should only pile into one this year. But let’s first look into what…
