TSMC’s first-quarter revenue surges as AI interest propels sales beyond market forecasts

This photo shows the logo of TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) during the Taiwan Innotech Expo at the World Trade Center in Taipei, Taiwan. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying, File)

TAIPEI — TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, on Friday reported a 35 per cent surge in ​first-quarter revenue, beating market forecasts, thanks to unabated interest in ‌artificial intelligence applications.

January-March revenue reached T$1.134 trillion (US$35.71 billion) compared with T$839.3 billion in the same period a year earlier, TSMC said in a statement without elaborating.

The result topped ​an LSEG SmartEstimate of T$1.125 trillion drawn from 20 analysts, and was ​in line with TSMC’s January guidance of $34.6 billion to $35.8 billion given ⁠at its last earnings call. TSMC only issues guidance in U.S. dollars.

TSMC’s ​latest record-smashing quarterly revenue comes as war in the Middle East is raising ​energy costs and upending global markets. That in turn threatens to disrupt the supply of production materials for semiconductors which analysts said could force companies to delay AI data ​centre investment.

Analysts nevertheless raised their forecast for TSMC’s April-June revenue by 2.3% ​over the last 30 days to a record T$1.2 trillion, LSEG data showed, betting ‌on ⁠constrained capacity for advanced AI chip production to boost the firm’s earnings.

TSMC will report first-quarter earnings on April 16 along with an updated outlook for the current quarter and full year.

The chipmaker, whose customers include Nvidia, has been ​a major beneficiary ​of advances in ⁠AI, which has more than offset a tapering-off in pandemic-led demand for chips used in consumer electronics such as ​tablet computers.

Its Taipei-listed shares have gained 29 per cent this year ​versus a ⁠rise of 22 per cent in the benchmark share price index. The stock closed up 2.3 per cent on Friday ahead of its sales announcement.

Compatriot Foxconn, the world’s largest contract ⁠electronics ​maker and Nvidia’s biggest server maker, has ​also reported bumper first-quarter sales with an on-year rise of 30 per cent.

Reporting by Ben Blanchard, Faith ​Hung and Wen-Yee Lee; Editing by Christian Schmollinger, Clarence Fernandez and Christopher Cushing