Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue rose 45 percent last month, accelerating its pace of growth from the second quarter and bolstering hopes for sustained strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips from the likes of Nvidia Corp.
Sales for the month reached NT$256.95 billion (US$7.92 billion). For the third quarter, analysts project TSMC revenue should grow 37 percent to NT$747.4 billion, with last month’s result suggesting TSMC could surpass those expectations.
Taiwan’s biggest company is one of the key bellwethers for AI demand, as the go-to chipmaker for leading accelerator makers Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. It is also the sole supplier of processors for Apple Inc’s iPhones, at a time the mobile device market is showing signs of bouncing off post-COVID-19 lows.
Photo: An Rong Xu, Bloomberg
The world’s largest contract chipmaker last month raised its full-year growth outlook to beyond the maximum mid-20 percent it had guided toward previously.
TSMC offered an upbeat assessment of its business and prospects when it last reported earnings, with chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) signaling the company might have room to raise prices as more of its customers transition to its most advanced technology and have to compete for limited capacity.
High-performance computing, led by AI, contributed 52 percent of TSMC’s revenue last quarter, the first time it has accounted for more than half.
However, investors have started to question whether the billions of dollars big tech firms have invested in the infrastructure to support the AI boom would result in substantial returns, while a potential delay in Nvidia’s development of a new generation of AI chips is spurring concerns over the progress of the emerging technology.
Worries about the global economic outlook over the past week interrupted the AI rally that had seen key players such as TSMC gains billions in market value. Investors opted to cash out of some of the year’s biggest gainers, pushing TSMC’s shares down 10 percent in a day, although they recovered much of that in subsequent days as money managers saw a good buying opportunity.
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