If you go looking for TSMC's annual report on EDGAR expecting a 10-K, you will not find one. The world's leading contract chip manufacturer is a Taiwan-domiciled company, and as a foreign private issuer it files an annual report on Form 20-F. That distinction is the first thing an explainer reader should understand before reading the document.
The filing in question is TSMC's Form 20-F filed April 16, 2021 (sec.gov; accession 0001193125-21-118512), the annual report covering the prior fiscal year. The 20-F is the SEC's vehicle for non-US companies whose shares trade in the United States, and it follows a different prescribed structure than the 10-K.
Why does the form matter? The 20-F lets a foreign issuer present financial statements under home-country or international standards with reconciliation rules, and it organizes disclosures - business overview, risk factors, operating review - under SEC item numbers designed for cross-border filers. The substance overlaps a 10-K, but the framework and timing differ.
For a foundry specifically, the annual report is where the capital intensity of the business becomes legible: a contract manufacturer lives or dies on capacity, and the 20-F is the formal place those plans and the risks around them are recorded for US investors. Reading it is how you separate the foundry's disclosed position from the industry chatter around it.
The practical lesson: when you research a non-US chipmaker, search for the 20-F, not the 10-K, and know that the annual cadence and the item structure will look different. TSMC, Samsung's US-listed peers, and ASML all sit in this foreign-issuer lane.
The primary source is the sec.gov 20-F; it was surfaced through EdgarBeast, an SEC-filing evidence index. Knowing which form a company files is the first step to reading it correctly - and for TSMC, that form is the 20-F.