By Yimou Lee, Ben Blanchard and Religion Hung
TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co logged document quarterly revenue on Thursday and stated it expects hefty first-quarter income development as demand surges for chips utilized in synthetic intelligence processing.
The world’s largest contract chipmaker, whose clients embody Apple (NASDAQ:) and Nvidia (NASDAQ:), posted a 57% soar in web earnings to T$374.68 billion ($11.4 billion) for the quarter ended Dec. 31, a document excessive for any quarter and in keeping with estimates. Income for the quarter climbed 39% from the identical interval a yr earlier.
It expects related income development within the present quarter of 37%.
TSMC additionally stated it expects its capital spending for this yr to be between $38 billion and $42 billion, a rise of as a lot as 41%, sustaining its bullish outlook for AI demand.
The Taiwanese firm, nevertheless, faces headwinds from U.S. authorities expertise restrictions on China and uncertainty about President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration, which has threatened broad import tariffs.
The U.S. authorities stated on Monday it could additional prohibit AI chip and expertise exports, including to potential points TSMC may face, although Taiwan and different shut U.S. allies can be allowed limitless entry to U.S. AI expertise.
TSMC is spending billions of {dollars} on new factories abroad, together with $65 billion on three crops within the U.S. state of Arizona, although it says most manufacturing will stay in Taiwan.
The AI increase has helped drive up the value of shares in Asia’s Most worthy firm, with TSMC’s Taipei-listed inventory hovering 81% final yr, in contrast with a 28.5% achieve for the broader market.
The inventory closed up 3.8% on Thursday forward of the earnings name.
($1 = 33.0390 Taiwan {dollars})
