[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] Taiwan's TSMC, the world's largest foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturer), has maintained its position as the number one Asian company by market capitalization for over a month, surpassing China's Tencent. Riding the semiconductor boom, TSMC's market value has exceeded $600 billion (approximately 718 trillion KRW).
According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and Bloomberg on the 25th (local time), TSMC's market capitalization closed at $635.2 billion, ahead of Tencent's $577.5 billion. TSMC's market cap ranks 9th among global publicly traded companies.
WSJ, citing financial data provider FactSet, explained that although TSMC had surpassed Tencent several times in market capitalization since August last year, those periods were short. This time, however, TSMC has held the top spot among Asian companies for over a month since December 15 last year.
TSMC is listed on the Taipei Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange, and its stock price has remained high amid the semiconductor boom. Tencent's stock price hit an all-time high in January last year but has declined since due to ongoing regulatory crackdowns on big tech by Chinese authorities.
TSMC recently announced its 2023 earnings and stated it plans to invest $40 billion to $44 billion in capital expenditures this year. This represents up to a 47% increase compared to the previous year, with 70-80% of the investment allocated to developing 2 to 7 nanometer (nm; 1 nm is one billionth of a meter) process technologies competing with Samsung Electronics.
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