TSMC: Record Quarter, Capacity Crunch
TSMC looks set to report a fourth consecutive record quarter as AI demand lifts chip sales, with Q1 net profit expected to jump about 50%. Investors are watching capex plans closely while Taiwan science parks near full capacity, forcing government moves to expand land and infrastructure for more fabs. (reuters.com) (digitimes.com)
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is heading into its April 16 earnings call with first-quarter sales already at a record, and investors are now focused on whether Taiwan has room to build enough new chip capacity. (tsmc.com) The company said April 10 that March revenue reached NT$415.19 billion, up 30.7% from February and 45.2% from a year earlier. First-quarter revenue totaled NT$1.134 trillion, up 35.1% from the same period in 2025. (tsmc.com) TSMC’s own guidance for the quarter was even higher in U.S. dollar terms: US$34.6 billion to US$35.8 billion in revenue, with gross margin of 63% to 65% and operating margin of 54% to 56%. The company will report first-quarter results on Thursday, April 16, 2026, at 2 p.m. Taiwan time. (tsmc.com) This is the pressure point behind the numbers: artificial intelligence chips need the most advanced manufacturing lines, and those lines are concentrated at TSMC. DigiTimes reported on April 12 that Taiwan’s science parks are nearing full capacity as semiconductor investment, led by TSMC, pushes demand for land, power, water and transport links. (digitimes.com) Taiwan’s National Science and Technology Council said on March 11 that science park revenue hit NT$5.8 trillion in 2025, up 21.83% from a year earlier. That gives the government a fresh reason to speed up park expansion while chipmakers keep adding factories. (nstc.gov.tw) The capital-spending question is already large. In January, TSMC told investors it expected a 2026 capital budget of US$52 billion to US$56 billion, after spending more heavily in 2025 as it expanded advanced process and advanced packaging capacity. (tsmc.com) That spending follows a run of record results. TSMC reported fourth-quarter 2025 net income of NT$505.74 billion, up 35.0% from a year earlier, on revenue of NT$1.046 trillion. (tsmc.com) The company also says scale is part of the story: TSMC’s investor site says it had more than 17 million 12-inch-equivalent wafers of annual capacity in 2025 and served about 465 customers. Those figures help explain why a land squeeze in Taiwan can ripple through the global market for artificial intelligence servers, smartphones and other electronics. (tsmc.com) By Thursday’s call, investors will have one clean test: whether TSMC’s new spending plans rise again with demand, or whether Taiwan’s factory footprint starts to set the pace. (tsmc.com)
