Prime Highlights 

• TSMC’s Q2 revenue rose 36% year-on-year to a record T$1.27 trillion, beating estimates.  

• June revenue alone jumped 67.9% annually, boosted by strong AI-related chip demand.  

Key Facts 

• TSMC is the world’s largest contract chipmaker and a key supplier to Nvidia and Apple.  

• The company’s market capitalisation stands at $1.955 trillion, Asia’s highest among listed firms.  

Background 

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, reported second-quarter revenue that rose 36% from a year earlier to a record high, driven by surging demand for artificial intelligence applications. 

Revenue for the April-June period came in at T$1.27 trillion, slightly above analyst estimates of T$1.264 trillion drawn from a poll of 20 analysts. TSMC, a major supplier to chip giants including Nvidia and Apple, had forecast second-quarter revenue of between $39 billion and $40.2 billion during its previous earnings call in April. The company gives its forecasts only in US dollars, not Taiwan dollars. 

For June alone, revenue rose 67.9% year-on-year to T$442.68 billion, up 6.2% from the previous month. 

The data had originally been due for release last week but was delayed after a powerful typhoon shut financial markets in Taipei that day. 

TSMC, Asia’s most valuable listed company with a market capitalisation of $1.955 trillion, did not offer details or forward guidance in its brief revenue statement. The company is due to report full second-quarter earnings later this week, when it will also update its outlook for the current quarter and the rest of the year, giving markets a clearer picture of demand trends. 

Analysts expect TSMC to report a 58.8% year-on-year rise in second-quarter net profit, according to estimates. 

TSMC’s Taipei-listed shares closed up 1% on Monday ahead of the release of the sales data, while the broader market ended flat. The company’s shares have risen 57% so far this year, broadly in line with the wider market.