Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) shares reached a record high on Monday in New York trading, as the world’s largest contract chipmaker is poised to cap its best annual stock performance in 25 years.
The stock climbed as much as 1.4 percent in Taipei yesterday, briefly surpassing its Nov. 8 peak, before erasing the gain to end flat at NT$1,080.
The move came after US chip stocks, including key customer Nvidia Corp, rallied on Monday. TSMC shares are up 82 percent this year amid continued investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI) trades.
Photo: I-hwa Cheng, AFP
“For us, TSMC remains the best way to play the AI theme without having to pick a winner or a technology, at a reasonable valuation,” said Kevin Net, head of Asian equities at Financiere de l’Echiquier.
The next catalyst to watch would be Nvidia’s presentation at Consumer Electronics Show next month as well as TSMC’s upcoming results and guidance, he added.
With a client list including Apple Inc and Advanced Micro Devices Inc, TSMC has been a major beneficiary of the boom in AI spending. The company is expected to report sales growth of 36 percent for the last quarter of the year, with a gross margin at 58.3 percent, the highest since 2022.
Unlike TSMC, which dominates the high-end chip market, companies specializing in mature IC processes saw strong buying interest yesterday in Taipei, after the US President Joe Biden administration on Monday launched a trade probe into Chinese-made “legacy” semiconductors, with United Microelectronics Corp (聯電), Taiwan’s second-largest contract chipmaker, rising 4.05 percent to close at NT$36.
Additional reporting by CNA
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS