The entry of chip giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) into the elite club of the world’s most valuable companies is further proof that the generative artificial intelligence (AI) revolution is shaking up Wall Street.
TSMC, which is listed in Taipei and New York, on Monday briefly broke the US$1-trillion market capitalization barrier, putting it ahead of Tesla Inc as the seventh-most valuable technology giant on the stock market.
Also on Monday, Alphabet Inc, Apple Inc and Meta Platforms Inc hit all-time highs.
Photo: CNA
The top 10 of the world’s most valuable companies is headed by Microsoft Corp and Apple, closely followed by AI chip designer Nvidia Corp.
Their global stock market valuations exceed US$3 trillion on Wall Street.
Alphabet and Amazon.com Inc, which recently topped the US$2-trillion mark, follow in an ever-changing ranking.
Oil giant Saudi Aramco slipped into sixth place, followed by Meta, TSMC and Tesla.
“The semiconductor industry is now the leading sector in the S&P 500,” CFRA Research analyst Angelo Zino said recently. “It’s taken over the last 15 or 18 months. That shows you how much the world has changed.”
The explosion in worldwide demand for chips, boosted by the rise of computing-intensive generative AI, promises sustained expansion for the industry.
Chipmakers are not only attracting investors, but also a host of government subsidies.
US President Joe Biden’s administration, for example, has granted tens of billions of dollars in financial support over several years to help build chip factories in the US.
Worldwide sales of semiconductors, which include integrated circuits, microprocessors and memory chips, are expected to reach US$611.2 billion this year, a record for the industry, the Semiconductor Industry Association said.
Sales are expected to jump by 16 percent this year and 12.5 percent next year, the association said.
Nvidia, a designer of graphics processing units (GPUs), is the frontrunner of the craze, and has triumphed on Wall Street in recent months.
Nvidia’s GPUs are a crucial component in building generative AI and since the November 2022 launch of ChatGPT, its market capitalization has increased eightfold.
In the middle of last month, the Santa Clara, California-based group even briefly became the world’s most valuable publicly traded company, ahead of Microsoft at US$3.3 trillion.
“Nvidia’s GPU chips are the new gold or oil of the technology sector,” Wedbush Securities Inc analysts said.
For them, Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft are now engaged in “the race for the 4 trillion dollar market valuation.”
TSMC, with most of its factories based in Taiwan, is well-placed to also reap the rewards.
While Nvidia, which only designs chips, but does not manufacture them, remains discreet about its supply chain, it is widely believed that the bulk of its products are manufactured by TSMC.
The Taiwanese giant, which controls more than half of the world’s semiconductor demand, posted first-quarter sales of US$18.87 billion, up 13 percent year-on-year, while net income climbed 9 percent to US$6.97 billion.
As for Nvidia, its quarterly profit reached US$14.9 billion, a sevenfold increase over the previous year, on sales of US$26 billion.
When an apartment comes up for rent in Germany’s big cities, hundreds of prospective tenants often queue down the street to view it, but the acute shortage of affordable housing is getting scant attention ahead of today’s snap general election. “Housing is one of the main problems for people, but nobody talks about it, nobody takes it seriously,” said Andreas Ibel, president of Build Europe, an association representing housing developers. Migration and the sluggish economy top the list of voters’ concerns, but analysts say housing policy fails to break through as returns on investment take time to register, making the
NOT TO WORRY: Some people are concerned funds might continue moving out of the country, but the central bank said financial account outflows are not unusual in Taiwan Taiwan’s outbound investments hit a new high last year due to investments made by contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and other major manufacturers to boost global expansion, the central bank said on Thursday. The net increase in outbound investments last year reached a record US$21.05 billion, while the net increase in outbound investments by Taiwanese residents reached a record US$31.98 billion, central bank data showed. Chen Fei-wen (陳斐紋), deputy director of the central bank’s Department of Economic Research, said the increase was largely due to TSMC’s efforts to expand production in the US and Japan. Investments by Vanguard International
WARNING SHOT: The US president has threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on all imported vehicles, and similar or higher duties on pharmaceuticals and semiconductors US President Donald Trump on Wednesday suggested that a trade deal with China was “possible” — a key target in the US leader’s tariffs policy. The US in 2020 had already agreed to “a great trade deal with China” and a new deal was “possible,” Trump said. Trump said he expected Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to visit the US, without giving a timeline for his trip. Trump also said that he was talking to China about TikTok, as the US seeks to broker a sale of the popular app owned by Chinese firm ByteDance Ltd (字節跳動). Trump last week said that he had
STRUGGLING TO SURVIVE: The group is proposing a consortium of investors, with Tesla as the largest backer, and possibly a minority investment by Hon Hai Precision Nissan Motor Co shares jumped after the Financial Times reported that a high-level Japanese group has drawn up plans to seek investment from Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc to aid the struggling automaker. The group believes the electric vehicle (EV) maker is interested in acquiring Nissan’s plants in the US, the newspaper reported, citing people it did not identify. The proposal envisions a consortium of investors, with Tesla as the largest backer, but also includes the possibility of a minority investment by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) to prevent a full takeover by the Apple supplier, the report said. The group is
RSS