TSMC offices in San Jose, California, on April 18, 2024.

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Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company on Thursday reported a 35% increase in fourth-quarter profit, beating estimates and hitting a fresh record as demand for artificial intelligence chips remained strong.

Here are the company’s results versus LSEG SmartEstimates, which are weighted toward forecasts from analysts who are more consistently accurate:

• Revenue: 1.046 trillion new Taiwan dollars ($33.73 billion), vs. NT$1.034 trillion expected
• Net income: NT$505.74 billion, vs. NT$478.37 billion expected

The world’s largest contract chipmaker has now posted year-over-year profit growth for eight consecutive quarters.

Meanwhile, TSMC’s revenue in the December quarter rose by 20.5% from a year ago to surpass NT$1 trillion, also beating forecasts.

TSMC, Asia’s largest technology company by market capitalization, has benefited greatly from the proliferation of artificial intelligence, producing advanced AI processors for clients such as Nvidia and AMD. 

The company’s high-performance computing division, which includes artificial intelligence and 5G applications, made up the majority of sales in the October-December quarter.

TSMC said advanced chips measuring 7-nanometer or smaller made up 77% of total wafer revenue during the quarter. For full-year 2025, those chips made up 74% of revenue, up from 69% in 2024.

In semiconductor technology, smaller nanometer sizes indicate more compact transistor designs, allowing faster processing speeds and greater energy efficiency.

“The demand for AI remains very strong, driving overall chip demand across the entire server industry,” Counterpoint Research senior analyst Jake Lai told CNBC, predicting that 2026 will be another “breakout year” for AI server demand. 

“With TSMC’s ongoing 2nm capacity expansion and new production contributing to revenue, along with continuous expansion of advanced packaging… TSMC is expected to maintain strong performance in 2026,” Lai said. 

However, he added that chip demand tied to consumer electronics such as smartphones and PCs could be affected by the ongoing memory shortage and price hikes.

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A motorcycle is seen near a building of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which is a Taiwanese multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company, in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on April 16, 2025.

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Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company on Thursday reported a near 61% year-on-year rise in second-quarter profit, beating estimates, as demand for artificial intelligence chips stays strong. 

Here are TSMC’s first-quarter results versus LSEG SmartEstimates:

• Revenue: 933.80 billion new Taiwan dollars ($31.7 billion), vs. NT$931.24 billion expected
• Net income: NT$398.27 billion, vs. NT$377.86 billion 

Second-quarter net profit hit a record high, according to Reuters.

TSMC’s net revenue in the June quarter rose 38.65% from a year ago to NT$933.80 billion, also beating estimates.

The company’s shares were up nearly 6% at 2:25 a.m. ET on trading platform Robinhood.

TSMC, the world’s largest contract chip manufacturer, has benefited from the megatrend towards artificial intelligence as it manufactures advanced AI processors for clients including Nvidia and Apple.

“The primary driver of growth for TSMC has been the robust demand for AI related chips, particularly for the leading edges nodes below 7nm,” said Brady Wang, associate director at Counterpoint Research.

In semiconductor technology, smaller nanometer sizes signify more compact transistor designs, which lead to greater processing power and efficiency. TSMC said advanced chips, with sizes 7-nanometer or smaller, accounted for 74% of TSMC’s total wafer revenue in the quarter. 

“Surging demand from the AI boom is highly sustainable in the near term, with AI still in its very beginning stages and continues to expand across industries,” Wang added.

However, the company faces potential headwinds from the trade policy of the U.S. President Donald Trump, who has threatened steep “reciprocal tariffs” on Taiwan.

Taiwan faces 32% tariffs announced in April and is in the midst of trade talks with the U.S., according to local media reports. Trump earlier this month also warned of potential additional tariffs on semiconductors.

U.S. export controls have also restricted TSMC’s business with China, as well that of its key clients such as Nvidia and AMD. However, amid a thawing of trade relations between Beijing and Washington, Nvidia and AMD said earlier this week that they had received government assurances allowing them to ship products to China. 

Other headwinds facing TSMC in the second half of the year include appreciation of the Taiwan dollar and potential order cuts from smartphone and PC clients due to global macro conditions, said Sravan Kundojjala, an analyst at SemiAnalysis specializing in global foundries.

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Illustration of the SK Hynix company logo seen displayed on a smartphone screen.

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South Korea’s SK Hynix on Thursday topped quarterly revenue and operating profit estimates, with demand for its high bandwidth memory offerings used in generative artificial intelligence chipsets remaining robust.

Here are SK Hynix’s first-quarter results versus LSEG SmartEstimates:

• Revenue: 17.64 trillion won ($12.36 billion) vs. 17.26 trillion won
• Operating profit: 7.44 trillion won vs. 6.62 trillion won

Revenue rose about 42% in the March quarter compared with the same period a year earlier, while operating profit surged 158%, year on year.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, revenue dropped 11%, while operating profit fell 8% from a record high in the December quarter.

The company warned that macroeconomic uncertainties including tariff policy have created demand volatility that will impact the second half of the year.

SK Hynix is a leading supplier of dynamic random access memory — a type of semiconductor memory found in PCs, workstations and servers that is used to store data and program code.

In its earnings release, SK Hynix said that its first-quarter profits demonstrated AI’s impact in the memory market as well as company’s leading position.

The memory chipmaker expects Big Tech’s spending on AI to continue, with the ecosystem’s expansion to be driven by open-source AI model offerings, and “sovereign AI projects” that will stoke memory demand.

SK Hynix has benefitted from a boom in artificial intelligence servers as a key supplier of high bandwidth memory, or HBM — a type of DRAM used in artificial intelligence servers — to clients such as the U.S. AI darling Nvidia. Micron Technology and Samsung Electronics are the other players in the space.

A report from Counterpoint Research earlier this month said that SK Hynix had captured 70% of the HBM market by revenue share in the first quarter.

This HBM dominance helped it overtake Samsung in the overall DRAM market for the first time ever, with a 36% global market share as compared to Samsung’s 34%, the report added.

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