TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, the dominant producer of advanced chips used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications, is expected to report a 30% jump in second-quarter profit on Thursday thanks to soaring demand.
The world’s largest contract chipmaker, whose customers include Apple and Nvidia, has benefited from a surge towards AI.
TSMC is set to report a net profit of T$238.8 billion for the quarter ended June 30, according to an LSEG SmartEstimate drawn from 21 analysts. SmartEstimates give greater weighting to forecasts from analysts who are more consistently accurate.
That estimate compares to the 2023 second-quarter net profit of T$181.8 billion.
While TSMC’s stock – and the broader Taiwan market – has reached record highs, it dropped 2.4% on Wednesday after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Taiwan “did take about 100% of our chip business” and should pay the U.S. for its defence as it does not give the country anything.
TSMC’s American Depository Receipts slid 8% on Wednesday.
TSMC last week reported a jump in Taiwan-dollar denominated second-quarter revenue, comfortably beating market expectations. It will give third-quarter revenue guidance in U.S. dollars.
On Wednesday, ASML, the world’s biggest chipmaking equipment supplier, reported better-than-expected second-quarter earnings.
TSMC, at its quarterly earnings call starting at 0600 GMT on Thursday, will update its outlook for the current quarter as well as for the full year, including its capital expenditure, as it races to expand production.
TSMC is spending billions of dollars building new factories overseas, including $65 billion on three plants in the U.S. state of Arizona, though it has said most manufacturing will remain in Taiwan.
On its last earnings call in April, TSMC maintained its guidance for capital spending this year at $28 billion to $32 billion, compared with last year’s $30.45 billion, and said 70% to 80% of the total would go towards advanced technologies.
The second half of the year is traditionally the peak season for Taiwanese tech companies as they race to supply customers ahead of the year-end holiday season in major Western markets.
The AI boom has helped drive up the price of shares in Asia’s most valuable company, with TSMC’s Taipei-listed stock leaping 74% so far this year to historic highs, compared with a 31% gain for the broader market.
TSMC, colloquially referred to in Taiwan as the “sacred mountain protecting the country” for its critical role in Taiwan’s export-dependent economy, faces little competition, though both Intel and Samsung are trying to challenge its dominance.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
