TSMC logo is seen at TSMC Museum of Innovation in Hsinchu, Taiwan May 29, 2024. REUTERS/Ann Wang/ File Photo
TAIPEI: TSMC posted a 36% jump in second-quarter net profit on Thursday that beat market expectations as the Taiwanese chipmaker rides a wave of demand for semiconductors used in artificial intelligence applications.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker and a major Apple Inc and Nvidia supplier, has benefited from a surge towards adoption of AI that has helped it weather the tapering off of pandemic-led electronics demand.
TSMC's April-June net profit climbed to T$247.8 billion ($7.60 billion) from T$181.8 billion a year earlier.
The profit beat a T$238.8 billion forecast for the quarter ended June 30, according to an LSEG SmartEstimate drawn from 21 analysts. SmartEstimates give greater weighting to forecasts from analysts who are more consistently accurate.
TSMC, Asia's most valuable publicly listed company, said second-quarter revenue rose 33% year-on-year to $20.8 billion, better than the company's previous forecast of $19.6 billion to $20.4 billion. The company last week announced second quarter revenue in Taiwan dollars, coming in at T$673.51 billion.
Capital expenditure in the second quarter was $6.36 billion, TSMC said, compared with $5.77 billion in the first quarter.
TSMC's Taipei-listed shares have been battered for the past two days after comments by the Republican candidate for the U.S. presidency, Donald Trump, that Taiwan "did take about 100% of our chip business" and should pay the U.S. for its defence.
They closed down 2.4% on Thursday. ($1 = 32.6000 Taiwan dollars) - Reuters
