Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s logo is seen in the background beside a printed circuit board.
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Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company on Thursday reported a 58% increase in first-quarter profit, beating estimates and hitting a fresh record as demand for artificial intelligence chips stayed strong.
Here are the company’s results versus LSEG SmartEstimates, which are weighted toward forecasts from analysts who are more consistently accurate:
Revenue: 1.134 trillion new Taiwan dollars ($35 billion), vs. NT$1.127 trillion expectedNet income: NT$572.48 billion, vs. NT$543.32 billion
TSMC’s net income of NT$572.48 billion for the three months ended in March represented a fourth consecutive quarter of record profits.
Meanwhile, the company’s revenue rose to NT$1.134 trillion, beating estimates. It had first reported the 35% year-on-year rise in first-quarter revenue last week.
TSMC, Asia’s largest technology company by market capitalization, has maintained sustained demand for advanced semiconductors from its key customers, such as Apple, even as concerns persist about supply chain disruptions from the Middle East conflict and the potential impact on demand.
During an earnings call, TSMC executives said the company does not expect any near-term impact on its operations from recent disruptions to global energy supplies.
The company also said it was adding an advanced chip fabrication plant in Tainan, Taiwan, as it attempts to keep up with strong demand.
TSMC manufactures chips for everything from consumer electronics to data centers, and has benefited greatly from the proliferation of AI, producing advanced processors designed by the likes of Nvidia — now the company’s largest customer — and AMD.
TSMC’s high-performance computing division, which includes AI and 5G applications, accounted for the majority of sales in the first quarter, rising to 61% of revenue.
Meanwhile, the company said advanced chips, with sizes 7-nanometer or smaller, accounted for about 74% of TSMC’s total wafer revenue in the quarter. TSMC’s shipments of advanced chips under 3-nanometers accounted for 25% of total wafer revenue.
In semiconductor technology, smaller nanometer sizes signify more compact transistor designs, which lead to greater processing power and efficiency.
At its last earnings call in January, the company said it expected its capital spending this year to rise as much as 37% to between $52 billion and $56 billion, reflecting an expectation that demand will continue to grow. On Thursday, the company said it now expected capex to be at the high end of that range.