TSMC posts record quarter
TSMC said first-quarter profit jumped 58% as demand for AI processors stayed “extremely robust,” and the company raised its 2026 revenue forecast while planning more capital spending to meet that demand. The report noted 3‑nanometre chips account for roughly a quarter of wafer revenue and underscored how leading‑edge capacity is being pulled into AI workloads. (reuters.com)
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing said on April 16 that first-quarter profit rose 58% to a record as orders for artificial-intelligence chips kept its newest factories full. (reuters.com) The company reported first-quarter revenue of $35.90 billion, above its own guidance of $34.6 billion to $35.8 billion, with gross margin at 66.2% and operating margin at 58.1%. (investor.tsmc.com) For the second quarter, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing guided revenue to $39.0 billion to $40.2 billion, with gross margin of 65.5% to 67.5%, and it raised its 2026 revenue outlook while planning higher capital spending, Reuters reported. (investor.tsmc.com) (reuters.com) Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing is the contract manufacturer that turns chip designers’ blueprints into finished silicon for companies including Nvidia and Apple. Its results are treated as a readout on demand across smartphones, data centers and the artificial-intelligence buildout. (investor.tsmc.com) (reuters.com) The pressure point is leading-edge production, where smaller process nodes pack more transistors into the same area and improve speed and power use. In 2025, 3-nanometer chips made up 24% of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing’s total wafer revenue, and in the fourth quarter alone they were 28%. (investor.tsmc.com 1) (investor.tsmc.com 2) High-performance computing, the category that includes many artificial-intelligence and server chips, accounted for 55% of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing’s revenue in the fourth quarter of 2025, compared with 32% for smartphones. That mix shows how much of the company’s newest capacity is being pulled toward data-center demand. (investor.tsmc.com) The first quarter had already looked strong before earnings day. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing said on April 10 that March revenue reached NT$415.19 billion, up 45.2% from a year earlier, and first-quarter revenue totaled NT$1.134 trillion, up 35.1%. (pr.tsmc.com) The company is also spending heavily outside Taiwan. It said in March 2025 that its planned United States investment would reach $165 billion, and its Arizona site says a third fab there is slated for 2-nanometer and A16 production by the end of the decade. (pr.tsmc.com) (tsmc.com) Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing’s next scheduled checkpoint is May 8, when it is due to report April 2026 monthly sales after a quarter that pushed revenue, margins and factory expansion plans higher at the same time. (investor.tsmc.com)
