TSMC packaging pressure
TSMC reported record first‑quarter revenue of NT$1.13tn ($35.7bn) as AI demand pushed business higher, with social and market commentary highlighting March sales up about 45%. (tradingkey.com) The company’s CoWoS packaging business is described as growing at roughly an 80% CAGR and expanding capacity in Arizona and Taiwan to relieve bottlenecks. (fool.com)
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. just posted another record quarter, and the pinch point is no longer only making chips but packaging them fast enough for artificial intelligence demand. (pr.tsmc.com) The company said on April 10 that March 2026 revenue reached about NT$415.19 billion, up 30.7% from February and 45.2% from a year earlier. Revenue for January through March totaled NT$1.134 trillion, up 35.1% from the same period in 2025. (pr.tsmc.com) CNBC reported that the first-quarter total beat the NT$1.12 trillion analyst estimate compiled by London Stock Exchange Group. The gain came as customers kept ordering advanced chips used in artificial intelligence servers and accelerators. (cnbc.com) Packaging is the step after a chip is made, when processors and memory are connected and sealed so they can work inside a server. For artificial intelligence chips, that stage has become critical because high-bandwidth memory has to sit very close to the main processor to move data quickly. (trendforce.com) TSMC’s main answer is a method called Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate, or CoWoS, which stacks and links several parts in one package. TrendForce cited TSMC Vice President Jun He saying CoWoS capacity was projected to grow at a compound annual rate of more than 50% from 2022 to 2026. (trendforce.com) That packaging line is now one of the company’s main constraints. TrendForce reported in December that TSMC’s CoWoS-L and CoWoS-S capacity was fully booked and that the company was targeting 120,000 to 130,000 wafers a month by the end of 2026. (trendforce.com) TSMC is adding room in Taiwan and in Arizona. In March 2025, the company said it would raise its total planned United States investment to $165 billion, including three additional fabrication plants, two advanced packaging facilities, and a research and development center in Phoenix. (pr.tsmc.com) Company executives have been framing that buildout as a response to a lasting shift in customer demand, not a short spike. Minutes from TSMC’s 2025 annual meeting said the company was investing in leading-edge manufacturing, specialty processes, and advanced packaging to support a “structural increase” in long-term demand. (investor.tsmc.com) The result is that TSMC’s sales now depend on two factories working in sequence: the wafer fab that prints the chip and the packaging line that ties the pieces together. Record revenue shows both are still filling up, even as the company spends heavily to keep the packaging bottleneck from becoming the next cap on growth. (pr.tsmc.com; pr.tsmc.com; trendforce.com)
