NVIDIA has now surpassed Apple as the largest consumer of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), signaling a major shift in the semiconductor industry as demand for Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure soars. This year, Nvidia is expected to bring in about $33B or 22% of TSMC’s total revenue, while Apple is projected to contribute $27B or 18%.  

Change indicates the end of the Apple era and shifts the focus of advanced chip manufacturing for consumer electronics towards high-performance AI computing.  

Key points about the $33B shift 

• NVIDIA’s AI GPUs, such as Hopper and Blackwell, are now TSMC’s top priority. NVIDIA’s orders have grown so fast that they have overtaken Apple, which was TSMC’s biggest customer for more than ten years.  

• High-performance computing sales at TSMC, mainly driven by Nvidia, now make up 55% of the company’s revenue. In contrast, smartphone sales, including Apple’s, have dropped to 32%.  

• As TSMC’s main customer, N Media now has priority access to advanced chip technologies and packaging, such as CoWoS (Chip on Water on Substrate). Some reports say Apple may lose its early access and could have to pay higher charges.  

• TSMC is increasing its investment, planning to spend $52B-$56B to keep up with the strong demand for AI chips. The demand is expected to last through 2029.  

Why This Shift Happened? 

This change is happening because building AI infrastructure is urgent and expensive. AI chips are much larger, more complex, and more expensive than those used in iPhones or MacBooks. Apple is still a major customer, but its demand for A and M series chips no longer drives TSMC’s growth as much as NVIDIA’s demand for data center accelerators.  

What does this mean for Apple? 

Apple is still a very important customer for TSMC, even though it is no longer the top priority. Now Apple has to compete with AI companies for the most advanced chip production, such as 2nm and 1.4nm technologies. Some reports say Apple is considering using Intel’s Foundry services for future chips that are not critical for AI, partly because it no longer receives special treatment at TSMC.  

NVIDIA is set to surpass Apple as TSMC’s largest revenue source. Analysts estimate that Nvidia will bring in about $33 million to TSMC in 2026, or about 22% of TSMC’s revenue. Apple is expected to contribute $27 billion, or 18%. NVIDIA’s CEO, Jensen Huang, recently said on a podcast that the company has already become TSMC’s largest customer.  

For over ten years, Apple has been TSMC’s main customer. Apple depends on TSMC to make its custom A-series chips for the iPhone and iPad, as well as the M-series chips for the Mac and iPad. This partnership has given Apple early access to TSMC’s latest manufacturing technology and helped TSMC invest in developing new semiconductor processes.  

This shift is driven by NVIDIA’s fast-growing demand, fueled by the worldwide expansion of artificial intelligence infrastructure. NVIDIA’s graphics processing units are now widely used as accelerators in data centers run by major cloud service providers.  

A major reason for Nvidia’s growing share of TSMC’s revenue is the type of chips it orders. AI accelerators are much larger, more complex, and more expensive to manufacture than Apple’s A or M series chips. They often need the latest process nodes with advanced packaging and higher wafer costs, which means TSMC earns more per chip. Although Apple ships more processors overall. Its chips are smaller and designed for power efficiency in consumer devices, so they cost less to manufacture.  

TSMC’s increasing focus on AI customers may directly affect Apple. Although Apple is still a key customer, it no longer drives TSMC’s decisions on capacity expansion or new technology investments. Analysts say Nvidia has now become the primary customer guiding TSMC’s development and investment in new process nodes.  

Apple is no longer TSMC’s largest customer in 2026 as demand for air chips has surged, according to CNBC.  

N Media has now surpassed Apple as TSMC’s largest customer, according to CEO Jensen Huang. He also called for massive new investments in AI infrastructure, underscoring that the tech industry’s focus is quickly shifting from mobile devices to AI systems.  

Huang shared his dis-news during an interview on a somewhat personal podcast with Jodi Shelton, when the host mentioned that TSMC founder Morris Chang remembered a young Huang promising to become one of the foundries’ biggest clients. Huang laughed and said Morris will be happy to know that NVIDIA is now TSMC’s largest customer.  

This change is symbolic. Apple became TSMC’s top customer over 10 years ago, after TSMC began making iPhone and iPad processors exclusively. Before that, Nvidia was a leading partner in the early 2000s until Apple’s custom chips pushed it ahead.  

This shift shows how quickly AI is changing the industry. Major cloud providers and businesses are all trying to get Nvidia GPUs, which has led to record revenue for Nvidia and made chip foundries focus on more AI processors, one source says. The TSMC might be raising prices for Apple’s production and may stop giving Apple priority in shipments, but neither company has confirmed this.

Sources: https://www.macrumors.com/2026/01/28/nvidia-replaces-apple-as-biggest-tsmc-customer/