TSMC forecasts increase in Q4 revenue after posting sixth straight quarter of record profit

TAIPEI, Oct 15 — TSMC, the world's largest manufacturer of advanced AI chips, said on Thursday it expects ​fourth-quarter revenue to rise by as much as 61% from a year earlier, after posting a sixth consecutive quarter of record earnings as it rides an AI boom.

The robust results should help ‌ease concerns that the AI investment surge is losing momentum; they come a day after ASML, the world's largest maker of tools used ⁠to make AI chips and advanced semiconductors, provided an ​upbeat outlook.

TSMC's Taipei-listed shares closed down 2% ahead ⁠of the earnings release, in line with a broader tech sell-off amid worries that more interest rate hikes ‌from the US Federal Reserve ‌could pummel shares of AI stocks that are sensitive to higher borrowing costs.

Shares of South ⁠Korean rivals Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix slid more than ⁠10%.

Analysts say demand for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co's (TSMC) AI chipmaking capacity, as well as its advanced chip packaging technology, CoWoS, remains strong.

That has catapulted Asia's most valuable company, a key supplier to Nvidia and Apple, to new heights. Its market capitalisation is almost double that of Samsung Electronics at around $2 trillion.

TSMC said net profit in the July-to-September quarter hit T$763.1 billion ($23.59 billion), up 69% from a year earlier ‌and beating a T$746.3 billion LSEG SmartEstimate compiled from 16 analysts.

On an ​earnings call following the results, TSMC said it expects fourth-quarter revenue of $52.3 billion to $54.3 billion, up from $33.73 billion a year earlier.

It maintained its capital spending expectation for 2026 at $60 billion to $64 billion.

The result was TSMC's highest-ever quarterly net income, as well as its 11th consecutive quarter of profit growth.

Last week, it reported a 50% year-on-year rise in third-quarter revenue, beating market forecasts and hitting a new record.

TSMC is investing $265 billion to build chip factories in the US state of Arizona, including an additional $100 billion that ​was unveiled in July.

In September, Reuters reported that TSMC was evaluating a potential investment in Texas. Tesla CEO Elon Musk also ‌said last week ‌that his companies would ⁠build and operate the Terafab AI chip complex, with TSMC potentially subleasing a part of it.

On its July earnings call, the company raised its capex forecast for this year to between $60 billion and $64 billion from a previous prediction at the high end of $52 billion to $56 billion.

ASML said on Wednesday customers were already looking to place ‌orders for 2029 and 2030, easing ​concerns that the AI investment boom was losing momentum.

TSMC's Taipei-listed ‌shares have gained 57% so ⁠far this year, in ​line with a 62% rise for the broader Taiwanese market.

($1 = 32.3450 Taiwan dollars)

(Reporting by Wen-Yee Lee and Ben Blanchard; Editing ​by Thomas Derpinghaus)

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