TSMC posts strong growth; helium risks chip supply

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing said on April 16 that first-quarter profit rose 58% and that 2026 revenue growth will top 30%. (usnews.com) The company reported first-quarter net income of T$572.5 billion, or about $18.2 billion, and said second-quarter sales should reach $39 billion to $40.2 billion. (usnews.com) (investor.tsmc.com) TSMC said first-quarter revenue was $35.9 billion, gross margin was 66.2%, and operating margin was 58.1%. Advanced 3-nanometer chips made up 25% of sales. (investor.tsmc.com) (usnews.com) The driver is artificial-intelligence spending. TSMC, a key supplier to Nvidia, said AI-related demand remains “extremely robust,” and Chief Executive C.C. Wei said capacity for advanced nodes is still tight. (usnews.com) TSMC also said it would spend at the high end of its earlier $52 billion to $56 billion capital-expenditure plan and keep expanding 3-nanometer output in Taiwan, the United States and Japan. (usnews.com) At the same time, a separate supply-chain risk is building around helium, a gas chip plants use for cooling, purging and leak detection in advanced manufacturing tools. (forbes.com) Forbes reported that Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City, the world’s biggest single helium hub, has been largely offline since early March after Iranian strikes and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The disruption removed an estimated 27% to 30% of global helium supply. (forbes.com) AGBI reported on March 25 that about 30% of Qatar’s helium volumes could be lost in 2026, equal to roughly 11% of global supply, because helium output stops when liquefied natural gas processing halts. (agbi.com) That outage has also trapped about 200 specialized containers used to ship liquid helium, creating a logistics bottleneck on top of the production shortfall. (agbi.com) TSMC told investors it is monitoring helium and hydrogen supplies and does not expect a significant impact for now. The test is whether inventories and recycling can bridge the gap while AI chip demand keeps rising. (forbes.com) (usnews.com)