TSMC vs Intel: Revenue, Profit, and Margin

Motherboard. Pexels Image.

This article compares several financial metrics between Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC) and Intel Corporation.

For your information, TSMC operates as a pure-play foundry, manufacturing chips exclusively for customers like Apple and Nvidia, while Intel is historically an Integrated Device Manufacturer (IDM) that designs and makes its own chips.

TSMC dominates with >50% market share via high-yield, advanced nodes, whereas Intel is transitioning to a foundry model (IFS) to compete while battling to regain manufacturing leadership with new technologies

Let’s look at the comparison results!

You may find related statistics of TSMC and Intel in the following pages:

TSMC

• TSMC revenue by region: North America, Asia Pacific, EMEA, China, and Japan,
• TSMC revenue by process node: 3nm, 5nm, 7nm, 10nm and more,
• TSMC revenue breakdown: HPC, Smartphone, IoT, Automotive, etc.,
• TSMC vs Intel: R&D expenditures,

Intel

• Intel largest customers by revenue: Dell, Lenovo, and HP,
• Intel financial position: debt due vs liquidity,
• Intel revenue by country and region: U.S., China, Singapore, and Taiwan,
• Intel foundry revenue and profit margin,

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Definitions

To help readers understand the content better, the following terms and glossaries have been provided.

New Taiwan Dollar (TWD): TSMC presented its financial results in native currency, which is the New Taiwan Dollar (TWD).

In this aspect, TSMC handled the conversion of the native currency to US dollars at the time of its earnings releases, rather than the editors.

The exchange rate between the USD and the New Taiwan Dollar is as follow:

1 USD = 31.51 TWD

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FAQs

To help readers understand the content better, the following FAQs have been provided.

Why is TSMC having much better profit margins than Intel?

TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) consistently generates better profit margins than Intel Corporation due to several key factors:

1. Business Model:
   • TSMC operates as a pure-play foundry, meaning it manufactures semiconductor products for other companies based on their designs. This allows TSMC to focus solely on manufacturing efficiency and economies of scale.
   • Intel, on the other hand, designs and manufactures its own chips, which involves higher R&D costs and capital expenditures.
2. Advanced Manufacturing Processes:
   • TSMC is a leader in advanced manufacturing technologies, including 3nm, 5nm, and 7nm processes. These advanced nodes are in high demand and command higher prices, contributing to TSMC’s higher profit margins.
   • Intel has faced delays and challenges in advancing its manufacturing processes, which has impacted its competitiveness and profitability.


3. Economies of Scale:
   • TSMC’s large-scale operations and high production volumes enable it to achieve economies of scale, reducing per-unit costs and increasing profit margins.
   • Intel’s integrated device manufacturing model, while comprehensive, does not benefit from the same level of scale efficiencies as TSMC’s foundry model.
4. Customer Base:
   • TSMC serves a diverse range of customers, including major players like Apple, AMD, and Nvidia. This diversified customer base provides a steady stream of high-margin business.
   • Intel primarily serves its own product lines and a smaller set of external customers, limiting its revenue streams.
5. Operational Efficiency:
   • TSMC’s focus on manufacturing excellence and continuous improvement has led to high operational efficiency and lower production costs.
   • Intel has faced operational challenges and higher costs associated with its integrated design and manufacturing approach.
6. Market Position:
   • TSMC’s dominant position in the foundry market allows it to command premium pricing for its advanced manufacturing services
   • Intel, while a leader in the CPU market, faces intense competition from AMD and other semiconductor companies, which pressures its pricing and margins.

These factors collectively contribute to TSMC’s superior profit margins compared to Intel Corporation.

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Insight & Summary of Financial Metrics Comparison between TSMC and Intel

The following analysis consolidates the trends observed across the comparison between TSMC and Intel in several financial metrics for the 2018–2025 period.

• This is a comparison between a company at the peak of its trajectory and one in existential crisis. In 2018, Intel’s revenue ($70.8B) was 2.1x TSMC’s ($33.7B), its gross margin (61.7%) exceeded TSMC’s (48.3%), and its operating margin (32.9%) was a credible competitor to TSMC’s (37.2%). By 2025, TSMC’s revenue ($121.4B) was 2.3x Intel’s ($52.9B), its gross margin (59.9%) is 2,510 basis points above Intel’s (34.8%), and its operating margin (50.8%) towers over Intel’s -4.2%. The reversal of the revenue relationship alone — from Intel being 2x larger to TSMC being 2x larger — is one of the most significant corporate scale reversals in modern technology history. The margin and profitability inversion is even more stark.

• Revenue trajectories have fully crossed. TSMC’s revenue grew 260% from $33.7B (2018) to $121.4B (2025), compounding at approximately 20% annually, driven by AI semiconductor demand, advanced node leadership, and pricing power at N5/N3/N2. Intel’s revenue declined from $70.8B (2018) to $52.9B (2025) — an 25.3% contraction — as it lost foundry customers to TSMC, ceded market share in PCs (to AMD and ARM) and data center (to AMD EPYC and NVIDIA accelerators), and failed to deliver competitive products on schedule. The 3-year averages — TSMC at $94.0B versus Intel at $53.4B — represent a fundamental repositioning of the two companies’ relative scale.

• Intel’s gross margin collapse is the financial signature of its competitive failure. Intel’s gross margin declined from 61.7% in 2018 — the highest in the comparison dataset, exceeding TSMC’s by 1,340 basis points — to 34.8% in 2025 — now 2,510 basis points below TSMC’s 59.9%. The 3-year average of 35.8% for Intel versus 56.8% for TSMC is a 2,100 basis point gap. In absolute gross profit terms, the reversal is equally dramatic: Intel generated $43.7B in gross profit in 2018 vs. TSMC’s $16.3B — a 2.7x advantage. By 2025, TSMC generated $72.7B versus Intel’s $18.4B — a 3.9x disadvantage for Intel. Intel’s gross margin erosion reflects the structural cost of running increasingly uncompetitive fabs, underutilisation charges as manufacturing volumes fell, and margin dilution from its unprofitable foundry services business.

• Intel’s operating profit crisis reached a catastrophic low in FY2024. Intel’s operating profit declined from $23.3B (2018) to just $93M in 2023, then collapsed to -$11.7B in 2024 — the largest operating loss in Intel’s history and the largest operating loss in the semiconductor industry’s modern era. The 3-year average of -$4.6B is deeply alarming in the context of a company that averaged $22B+ in operating profit from 2018–2020. TSMC’s 3-year average operating profit of $44.3B — producing a 46.4% margin — places it among the most profitable large-cap technology companies globally. FY2025 shows a partial Intel recovery to -$2.2B (-4.2% margin), driven by restructuring, cost reductions, and some product cycle improvements, but the deficit to TSMC is structural and widening.

• Net profit tells the definitive story. TSMC’s net profit averaged $39.4B over the latest three years with a 41.5% net margin. Intel’s net profit averaged -$5.8B over the same period, producing an average net margin of -11.0%. Intel’s FY2024 net loss of -$19.2B — driven by impairment charges, restructuring costs, and the foundry services write-downs — is the largest single-year net loss in its history. The FY2025 recovery to a near-zero $26M net profit suggests Intel has stabilised at breakeven from an operating perspective, but the gap from TSMC’s $54.0B net profit is $54 billion in a single year. For context: the entire market capitalisation of Intel in early 2025 was approximately $90–100B; TSMC’s annual net profit alone approaches half of Intel’s total market value.

• The gross margin crossover in FY2022 is the dataset’s structural inflection point. In 2021, Intel’s gross margin was still 55.4% versus TSMC’s 51.6% — Intel maintained a gross margin advantage for the first four years of the dataset. The crossover happened in FY2022, when TSMC’s rapid Node 5 ramp and pricing power pushed its gross margin to 59.6% while Intel’s fell to 42.6% amid the PC market correction and foundry underutilisation. This crossover — four years into the dataset — is the precise moment when the competitive positions structurally reversed, and the gap has widened every year since.

• Structural Takeaway: The TSMC vs. Intel comparison has moved beyond financial metrics — it is now a strategic case study in what happens when a vertically integrated incumbent loses its manufacturing edge to a focused pure-play foundry. Intel’s financial deterioration from 2022 to 2024 is the consequence of a decade of delayed process node transitions, management instability, and strategic miscalculation about the importance of external foundry services. TSMC’s financial ascent reflects the opposite: single-minded focus on manufacturing excellence, trusted customer relationships (Apple, NVIDIA, AMD, Qualcomm), and a process roadmap that has remained consistently ahead of any competitor. Whether Intel’s current restructuring under its foundry-focused strategy can close any part of this gap over the next five years is the most consequential question in the global semiconductor industry.

The table below combines all key financial metrics between TSMC and Intel into a single view for the latest three fiscal years.

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TSMC vs Intel: Revenue

TSMC reports its financial statements primarily in New Taiwan Dollars (TWD). You can find more information about the currency exchange rates between TWD and the US dollar here: New Taiwan Dollar (TWD).

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TSMC vs Intel: Gross Profit and Margin

TSMC reports its financial statements primarily in New Taiwan Dollars (TWD). You can find more information about the currency exchange rates between TWD and the US dollar here: New Taiwan Dollar (TWD).

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TSMC vs Intel: Operating Profit and Margin

TSMC reports its financial statements primarily in New Taiwan Dollars (TWD). You can find more information about the currency exchange rates between TWD and the US dollar here: New Taiwan Dollar (TWD).

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TSMC vs Intel: Net Profit and Margin

TSMC reports its financial statements primarily in New Taiwan Dollars (TWD). You can find more information about the currency exchange rates between TWD and the US dollar here: New Taiwan Dollar (TWD).

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Credits and References

1. All financial figures presented were obtained and referenced from TSMC’s and Intel’s annual reports published on the companies’ investor relations pages: TSMC Annual Reports and Intel Investor Relations.

2. Pexels Images.

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Disclosure

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to assist us in writing some of the text in this article. However, the data is directly obtained from original sources (usually the quarterly and annual reports) and meticulously cross-checked by our editors multiple times to ensure its accuracy and reliability.

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