▲ Taiwan TSMC
Taiwan’s TSMC, named as one of the representative beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, has announced that it recorded a net profit approaching 14 trillion won in the third quarter of this year, surpassing market expectations.
TSMC, the world’s largest foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) company, reported that its net profit for the third quarter of this year was 13.8 trillion won, a 54.2% increase compared to the same period last year.
According to Reuters, this figure exceeds the projected 12.7 trillion won expected by the market research firm LSEG.
TSMC’s third-quarter revenue was 32.3 trillion won, up 39% from the same period last year.
When measured in U.S. dollars, third-quarter revenue increased by 36% compared to the same period last year and 12.9% from the previous quarter, again exceeding the market’s average forecast.
TSMC stated that its gross profit margin in the third quarter was 57.8%, with an operating profit margin of 47.5% and a net profit margin of 42.8%.
Furthermore, it added that in the third quarter, 3-nanometer products accounted for 20% of total wafer sales, 5-nanometer products accounted for 32%, and 7-nanometer products accounted for 17%, with advanced semiconductors of 7 nanometers or more making up 69% of sales.
TSMC is a company that contract manufactures cutting-edge semiconductors necessary for training AI models and is considered a key beneficiary of the global surge in AI expenditure.
Despite the recent gloomy outlook for the global semiconductor industry after the world’s leading semiconductor equipment company, ASML of the Netherlands, released a performance forecast falling far below market expectations, companies identified as major beneficiaries of the AI semiconductor boom, such as NVIDIA, SK Hynix, and TSMC, are leading global stock markets with outstanding performance.
Bloomberg News noted, “AI chips are offsetting the sluggish mobile industry,” and highlighted that “demand for TSMC’s 2-nanometer and 3-nanometer products from NVIDIA, AMD, Apple, and Qualcomm is strong.”
(Photo = Yonhap News)