TSMC's record quarter

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing said on April 16 that its first-quarter revenue hit a record $35.9 billion, and it told investors the current quarter should be even bigger. (investor.tsmc.com) Net income rose to NT$572.5 billion, or about $18.1 billion, up 58% from a year earlier, while gross margin reached 66.2% and operating margin 58.1%. (investor.tsmc.com) The mix inside the quarter shows where the demand is coming from. High-performance computing, the category that includes artificial-intelligence and data-center chips, accounted for 61% of revenue, while smartphone chips were 28%. (investor.tsmc.com) TSMC also said 3-nanometer chips made up 25% of wafer revenue, 5-nanometer contributed 36%, and 7-nanometer added 13%. Taken together, chips made on 7-nanometer and smaller processes were 74% of wafer revenue. (investor.tsmc.com) That matters because TSMC is the main factory for many of the world’s most advanced chip designers, and its customer list includes Apple, Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom and Qualcomm. When its high-performance computing share rises, it is a direct read on where the biggest chip orders are landing. (investor.tsmc.com; pr.tsmc.com) The company guided second-quarter revenue to $39.0 billion to $40.2 billion, above its first-quarter total, and forecast gross margin of 65.5% to 67.5%. Reuters reported TSMC also lifted its 2026 revenue outlook and said capital spending would move toward the high end of its existing range to support artificial-intelligence demand. (investor.tsmc.com; usnews.com) Capital spending in the first quarter was $11.1 billion. CNBC reported the company called this its fourth straight quarter of record profit as demand for artificial-intelligence chips stayed strong even as the broader electronics market remained uneven. (investor.tsmc.com; cnbc.com) TSMC is spending that money across more than Taiwan. The company said in March 2025 that it planned to raise its total U.S. investment to $165 billion, adding three new fabs, two advanced-packaging facilities and a research center in Arizona, where its first fab has been in volume production since late 2024. (pr.tsmc.com) The quarter does not mean smartphones disappeared; it means the center of gravity moved. A year ago, high-performance computing was 59% of first-quarter revenue and smartphones were 28%; this year, high-performance computing climbed to 61% while smartphones stayed at 28%. (investor.tsmc.com; investor.tsmc.com) For now, the simplest takeaway is the one TSMC put in its numbers: bigger sales, fatter margins and another step up in guidance, driven by the customers buying the most advanced chips. (investor.tsmc.com)