The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company logo is visible in the background next to the printed circuit board.
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Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.. On Friday, it posted another record quarterly profit, driven by demand for AI chips.
The world’s largest chipmaker reported sales of NT$1.13 trillion ($35.6 billion) from January to March, higher than analysts’ expectations of NT$1.12 trillion, according to estimates compiled by LSEG. This represents a 35% increase over the previous year.
In March alone, TSMC reported a 45.2% year-on-year increase in sales to NT$415.2 billion.
The semiconductor giant is benefiting from sustained demand for advanced semiconductors from key customers including: apple and NvidiaDespite continued concerns about supply chain disruptions from the Middle East conflict and its potential impact on demand.
“TSMC will easily exceed its 30% annual growth target,” SemiAnalysis analyst Sravan Kundjala told CNBC via email.
Kundojala added that while the smartphone and PC end markets were hit by memory shortages, the AI arm of TSMC’s business “pulled its weight.”
TSMC makes chips for everything from consumer electronics to data centers and has been a big beneficiary of the hundreds of billions of dollars poured into AI infrastructure.
The company is one of the few companies capable of producing cutting-edge chips.
TSMC also reportedly increased prices on its cutting-edge chips, which was a “huge factor” in boosting sales in the first quarter, Kundojara said, adding that he expects TSMC to report gross margins of 64% in the first quarter.
More and more players are designing their own chips, from hyperscalers like . google to armwhich provided blueprints for specific semiconductors, came to market with its own central processing unit (CPU). According to Reuters, AI company Anthropic is also considering designing its own chips, and a long tail of startups are bringing new products to market in the field of AI inference.
Most of the manufacturing has to go through TSMC or competitors like Samsung and Samsung. intel.
TSMC releases monthly sales figures, but provides little commentary or profitability numbers. The company plans to release full first-quarter earnings on April 16.
Investors will also be looking at returns from: ASML Next week, companies considered to be leaders in the semiconductor field will be announced. The Dutch giant makes the machinery that is essential for companies like TSMC to produce the world’s most advanced chips.
