TSMC set to post sixth straight quarter of record earnings
What's the story
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world's largest advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaker, is set to announce its sixth consecutive quarter of record earnings. The company's growth is largely due to a surge in infrastructure spending in the tech sector. Analysts have noted that demand for TSMC's AI chipmaking capacity and its advanced chip packaging technology, CoWoS, remains strong.
Market dominance
TSMC's m-cap nearly double that of Samsung Electronics
TSMC's strong performance has made it Asia's most valuable company, a key supplier to tech giants NVIDIA and Apple.
The company's market capitalization is nearly double that of its South Korean rival, Samsung Electronics, at around $2.1 trillion.
On Thursday, TSMC is expected to report a 65% increase in third-quarter net profit to T$746.3 billion ($23.4 billion), according to an LSEG SmartEstimate compiled from 16 analysts' forecasts.
Financial outlook
Strong demand for 3nm chips
An earnings call is scheduled for Thursday, where TSMC will provide its fourth-quarter and updated full-year guidance.
Any result above T$706.56 billion would be the company's highest-ever quarterly net income and its 11th consecutive quarter of profit growth.
Morgan Stanley analyst Charlie Chan expects TSMC to raise its full-year revenue growth forecast to the low-to-mid 40% range from the current guidance of over 40%, due to strong demand for its 3-nanometer (nm) chips.
Expansion strategy
TSMC's investment in US chip factories
TSMC is investing $265 billion to build chip factories in Arizona, including an additional $100 billion announced in July.
In September, Reuters reported that TSMC was considering a possible 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 possibly subleasing part of it.