Advanced Process Revenue Accounts for 77%
TSMC, the world's largest foundry company based in Taiwan, achieved a surprise performance in the fourth quarter of last year. Driven by robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, its net profit surged by 35% compared to the previous year.
According to TSMC on January 15, consolidated sales for the fourth quarter of last year reached 1.04609 trillion New Taiwan dollars (approximately 48.67 trillion won), marking a 20.5% increase from the same period a year earlier. During the same period, net profit rose by 35.0% to 505.7 billion New Taiwan dollars (about 23.05 trillion won). Notably, net profit recorded double-digit growth rates for the seventh consecutive quarter.
Reuters reported that last year's fourth quarter net profit far exceeded the consensus estimate of 478.4 billion New Taiwan dollars from 20 analysts surveyed by market research firm LSEG. In US dollar terms, fourth quarter revenue amounted to 33.73 billion dollars (about 49.6 trillion won), up 25.5% year-on-year and 1.9% quarter-on-quarter.
By process node, revenue distribution was 28% from 3nm, 35% from 5nm, and 14% from 7nm. The proportion of revenue from advanced processes of 7nm or below reached 77%. Bloomberg analyzed that TSMC’s strong performance supports the optimistic outlook of US chip design companies regarding AI hardware demand.
Reuters also assessed that TSMC posted record-breaking results, far surpassing market expectations thanks to the AI boom. Despite the significant uncertainty introduced to the global chip industry by the Trump administration’s trade policies and threats to impose tariffs on semiconductors, these factors have not yet significantly impacted the surging profits fueled by the ongoing AI boom.
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