Chip investment surge
Demand for AI infrastructure is keeping chipmakers and equipment vendors on a heavy investment footing, with market signals of both strong profits and record capital spending. TSMC is expected to report a fourth straight quarter of record profit with net income up around 50% year‑on‑year, equipment sales climbed about 15% in 2025 to a record US$135.1bn, and SiFive raised $400m at a $3.65bn valuation with Nvidia backing as players chase architectural optionality. ( )
Chip companies are still spending like the artificial intelligence buildout has years to run. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is expected to post a fourth straight record quarter this week as equipment sales and startup funding keep rising. (money.usnews.com, semi.org, sifive.com) Analysts polled by London Stock Exchange Group expect Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to report January-to-March net profit of T$542.6 billion, or about $17.1 billion, up about 50% from a year earlier, when it reports on Thursday, April 17. Reuters said it would be the company’s fourth consecutive quarter of record profit. (money.usnews.com, srnnews.com) The demand is concentrated in the most advanced parts of the supply chain. Reuters said orders for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s 3-nanometer process and advanced packaging, which bundles chips tightly together to move data faster, are still running ahead of current capacity. (money.usnews.com, srnnews.com) The machinery behind that expansion is also setting records. Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International, the industry trade group known as SEMI, said worldwide chip-equipment sales rose 15% in 2025 to $135.1 billion from $117.1 billion in 2024. (semi.org, eetasia.com) SEMI said the increase came from spending on advanced logic, memory, and artificial-intelligence-related capacity. That means chipmakers are not only reporting stronger profits; they are still ordering the lithography, etch, deposition, and test tools needed to add future output. (semi.org, evertiq.com) Investors are also funding alternatives higher up the stack, where chip blueprints are sold before factories ever cut silicon. On April 9, SiFive said it raised $400 million in an oversubscribed Series G round at a $3.65 billion valuation to speed its data-center processor roadmap. (sifive.com, msn.com) SiFive builds processor intellectual property based on RISC-V, an open instruction set architecture that gives customers a different starting point from Arm or x86 designs. Reuters said the round included Atreides Management and Nvidia, tying one of the biggest artificial intelligence chip buyers to a company selling more architectural choice. (sifive.com, msn.com, techcrunch.com) Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s shares have already reflected some of that optimism. Reuters said the company’s stock had risen about 19% so far in 2026 before earnings, giving it a market value of roughly $832 billion. (money.usnews.com) Thursday’s earnings report will show whether profits are keeping pace with the industry’s spending wave. For now, the signal from foundries, toolmakers, and chip-design startups points in the same direction: more capacity, more capital, and no clear pause in artificial intelligence infrastructure demand. (money.usnews.com, semi.org, sifive.com)
