Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) shares yesterday dropped the most in more than four months after its gross margin disappointed investors who had banked on the chipmaker benefiting from an ongoing chip shortage.
The stock sank 4.1 percent in Taipei trading, snapping four days of gains. Gross margin for the second quarter was 50 percent, below the roughly 51 percent average predicted by analysts, in part because of the New Taiwan dollar’s appreciation.
For this quarter, TSMC forecast gross margin of 49.5 percent to 51.5 percent.
Analysts from Morgan Stanley called the third-quarter guidance a “disappointment,” adding that gross margin could fall below 50 percent as early as next year.
TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, has faced increasing pressure to boost capacity to help alleviate a supply crunch that has plagued the automobile and other industries.
The company earlier this year pledged to spend US$100 billion over three years to build new fabs and invest in more advanced nodes, as rivals such as Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co seek to catch up. TSMC executives on Thursday also said for the first time that the chipmaker was weighing plans for a fabrication plant in Japan.
“We still believe at some point in 2022 and 2023, TSMC’s gross margin will fall below 50 percent given the steep increase in depreciation cost, while the company doesn’t seem to be demonstrating pricing power,” Morgan Stanley analysts led by Charlie Chan (詹家鴻) wrote in a note after the earnings. “Or, simply as indicated, Moore’s Law is just getting too expensive, while TSMC will have to suffer margin erosion to keep the chip scaling trend going.”
The disappointing margin overshadowed a raised sales projection based on its central role in alleviating a global chip crunch that is plaguing automakers and device manufacturers.
TSMC said sales this year would rise more than 20 percent, a slight increase from a previous forecast of 20 percent growth in full-year sales.
Revenue in the current quarter is forecast to rise to between US$14.6 billion and US$14.9 billion, in line with the US$14.7 billion average of analysts’ estimates.
Some analysts said TSMC had failed to meet outsized expectations.
The results “beat our conservative estimates, but missed consensus” due to “excessive” expectations for gross margin, Needham & Co wrote in a note on Thursday.
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
The domestic unit of the Chinese-owned, Dutch-headquartered chipmaker Nexperia BV will soon be able to produce semiconductors locally within China, according to two company sources. Nexperia is at the center of a global tug-of-war over critical semiconductor technology, with a Dutch court in February ordering a probe into alleged mismanagement at the company. The geopolitical tussle has disrupted supply chains, with some carmakers reportedly forced to cut production due to chip shortages. Local production would allow Nexperia’s domestic arm, Nexperia Semiconductors (China) Ltd (安世半導體中國), to bypass restrictions in place since October on the supply of silicon wafers — etched with tiny components to
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday received government approval to deploy its advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process at its second fab currently under construction in Japan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a news release. The ministry green-lit the plan for the facility in Kumamoto, which is scheduled to start installing equipment and come online in 2028 with a monthly production capacity of 15,000 12-inch wafers, the ministry said. The Department of Investment Review in June 2024 authorized a US$5.26 billion investment for the facility, slated to manufacture 6- to 12nm chips, significantly less advanced than 3nm process. At a meeting with
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s
RSS