Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue rose 33 percent year-on-year last month, in a positive signal to investors betting on a smartphone market recovery and sustained demand for Nvidia Corp’s artificial intelligence (AI) chips.
Sales reached NT$250.87 billion (US$7.8 billion) last month, slowing from the previous month’s 45 percent growth to a record NT$256.95 billion.
In the first eight months of this year, TSMC’s sales totaled NT$1.77 trillion, up 30.8 percent from a year earlier.
Photo: CNA
While just a month’s snapshot, the results could assuage concerns about whether the market has overestimated the durability of AI infrastructure spending.
Nvidia’s shares shed about US$279 billion on Tuesday last week in their biggest single-day loss, after reporting earnings that failed to live up to the loftiest expectations.
That puts TSMC on track to beat average projections for third-quarter revenue by a slight margin, Bernstein analysts led by Mark Li wrote.
“If September follows the average seasonality of the past eight years, third-quarter revenue would come 5 percent to 6 percent above both the guidance mid-point & consensus,” he said.
For the third quarter, analysts expect the chipmaker’s sales to grow 37 percent year-on-year. In July, TSMC told investors that its third-quarter revenue would range between US$22.4 billion and US$23.2 billion.
Taiwan’s largest company now makes more than half of its revenue from high-performance computing, the segment of its business driven by AI demand. Nvidia’s go-to chipmaker is also the main manufacturer for the iPhone’s main processor.
Apple Inc on Monday unveiled the iPhone 16, built for AI “from the ground up,” but with capabilities that would be gradually added to the device via software updates. Wall Street is betting on a bounce-back in demand for mobile devices.
COMPETITION: AMD, Intel and Qualcomm are unveiling new laptop and desktop parts in Las Vegas, arguing their technologies provide the best performance for AI workloads Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), the second-biggest maker of computer processors, said its chips are to be used by Dell Technologies Inc for the first time in PCs sold to businesses. The chipmaker unveiled new processors it says would make AMD-based PCs the best at running artificial intelligence (AI) software. Dell has decided to use the chips in some of its computers aimed at business customers, AMD executives said at CES in Las Vegas on Monday. Dell’s embrace of AMD for corporate PCs — it already uses the chipmaker for consumer devices — is another blow for Intel Corp as the company
MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said it is teaming up with Nvidia Corp to develop a new chip for artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputers that uses architecture licensed from Arm Holdings PLC. The new product is targeting AI researchers, data scientists and students rather than the mass PC market, the company said. The announcement comes as MediaTek makes efforts to add AI capabilities to its Dimensity chips for smartphones and tablets, Genio family for the Internet of Things devices, Pentonic series of smart TVs, Kompanio line of Arm-based Chromebooks, along with the Dimensity auto platform for vehicles. MeidaTek, the world’s largest chip designer for smartphones
TECH PULL: Electronics heavyweights also attracted strong buying ahead of the CES, analysts said. Meanwhile, Asian markets were mixed amid Trump’s incoming presidency Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) shares yesterday closed at a new high in the wake of a rally among tech stocks on Wall Street on Friday, moving the TAIEX sharply higher by more than 600 points. TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock in the TAIEX, rose 4.65 percent to close at a new high of NT$1,125, boosting its market value to NT$29.17 trillion (US$888 billion) and contributing about 400 points to the TAIEX’s rise. The TAIEX ended up 639.41 points, or 2.79 percent, at 23,547.71. Turnover totaled NT$406.478 billion, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. The surge in TSMC follows a positive performance
FUTURE TECH: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang would give the keynote speech at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, which is also expected to highlight autonomous vehicles Gadgets, robots and vehicles imbued with artificial intelligence (AI) would once again vie for attention at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week, as vendors behind the scenes would seek ways to deal with tariffs threatened by US president-elect Donald Trump. The annual Consumer Electronics Show opens formally in Las Vegas tomorrow, but preceding days are packed with product announcements. AI would be a major theme of the show, along with autonomous vehicles ranging from tractors and boats to lawn mowers and golf club trollies. “Everybody is going to be talking about AI,” Creative Strategies Inc analyst Carolina Milanesi said. “From fridges to ovens
RSS