April 18, 2024, TSMC Office, San Jose, California.
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Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company on Thursday reported a 35% increase in fourth-quarter profit, beating expectations and setting a new record as demand for artificial intelligence chips remained strong.
Below is a comparison of the company’s results with LSEG SmartEstimates, which emphasizes more consistently accurate analyst forecasts.
Revenue: NT$1.46 trillion ($33.73 billion), expected NT$1.34 trillion; Net profit: NT$505.74 billion, expected NT$478.37 billion
The world’s largest contract chip maker has now posted eight consecutive quarters of year-over-year profit increases.
Meanwhile, TSMC’s sales in the December quarter rose 20.5% year-on-year to more than NT$1 trillion, also exceeding expectations.
TSMC, Asia’s largest technology company by market capitalization, has benefited greatly from the proliferation of artificial intelligence, producing advanced AI processors for customers such as Nvidia and AMD.
The company’s high-performance computing division, which includes artificial intelligence and 5G applications, accounted for the majority of sales in the October-December period.
TSMC said advanced chips below 7 nanometers accounted for 77% of total wafer revenue in the quarter. For the full year 2025, these chips accounted for 74% of revenue, up from 69% in 2024.
In semiconductor technology, smaller nanometer sizes allow for more compact transistor designs, enabling faster processing speeds and higher energy efficiency.
“Demand for AI continues to be very strong, driving chip demand across the server industry,” Jake Lai, senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, told CNBC, predicting that 2026 will be another “breakthrough year” for AI server demand.
“TSMC’s continued 2nm capacity expansion and new production will contribute to earnings, and with continued expansion in advanced packaging…TSMC is expected to maintain its strong performance in 2026,” Lai said.
However, he added that chip demand related to consumer electronics products such as smartphones and PCs could be affected by ongoing memory shortages and rising prices.
