Asia stocks climb tracking Wall St rally; Nikkei hits record high, China GDP beats
By Wen-Yee Lee and Ben Blanchard
TAIPEI, April 16 (Reuters) - TSMC, the world’s largest manufacturer of advanced artificial intelligence chips, will likely notch up a fourth consecutive quarter of record earnings with a 50% surge in net profit for January-March driven by booming demand for AI infrastructure.
Demand for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s 3-nanometre technology to produce AI chips and its advanced packaging technology continues to outstrip the firm’s current production capacity, according to analysts.
That’s driven Asia’s most valuable company, a key supplier to Nvidia and Apple, to new heights. Its market capitalisation is now nearly double that of South Korean rival Samsung Electronics at around $1.68 trillion.
On Thursday, TSMC is expected to report a net profit of T$543.3 billion ($17.23 billion) for the first quarter, according to an LSEG SmartEstimate compiled from 19 analysts. SmartEstimates place greater weight on forecasts from analysts who are more consistently accurate.
An earnings call at which it will provide second-quarter and updated full-year guidance is scheduled for 0600 GMT.
A profit above T$505.7 billion would mark the company’s highest-ever quarterly net income and its ninth consecutive quarter of profit growth.
Last week, it posted a 35% year-on-year rise in first-quarter revenue, ahead of market forecasts.
The war in the Middle East threatens to disrupt the supply of production materials for semiconductors such as helium and neon, but TSMC is seen by analysts as well-placed to weather the crisis.
One area of focus will be whether TSMC maintains or raises its 2026 capital spending plans as that will reflect management’s confidence in long-term AI demand, analysts said.
At its last earnings call in January, the company said capital spending this year would hit between $52 billion and $56 billion, up as much as 37% compared with 2025’s $40.9 billion.
TSMC is investing $165 billion to build chip factories in the U.S. state of Arizona.
The company has also revised its plans in Japan and is now set to manufacture 3-nanometre chips there, instead of focusing on more mature nodes.
TSMC’s Taipei-listed shares have gained 34% so far this year, outperforming the 27% rise for the broader market.
($1 = 31.5170 Taiwan dollars)