Taiwan’s TSMC second-quarter revenue rise 44 percent

Taiwanese tech giant TSMC said Thursday its second quarter revenue rose more than 40 percent on continued strong demand for high-performance computing and auto chips.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company operates the world’s largest silicon wafer factories and produces some of the most advanced microchips used in everything from smartphones and cars to missiles.

The vast majority of the world’s most advanced microchips are made by just two companies—TSMC and Samsung—both of which are running at full capacity to alleviate a global shortage.

The Taiwanese firm dominates more than half of the global foundry market, with clients including Apple and Qualcomm.

Revenue in the April-June period rose 43.5 percent on-year to Tw$534.14 billion (US$17.9 billion), it said in a statement, beating forecasts.

TSMC also posted a profit of Tw$237 billion period, a rise of 76.4 percent on-year.

Revenue from high-performance computing (HPC) and automotive rose 13 percent and 14 percent, respectively, while sales from smartphones were up three percent on-quarter.

For the current quarter, officials estimated revenue of US$19.8-$20.6 billion, chief financial officer Wendell Huang told an investor conference.

Chief executive C.C. Wei added the company expected a few quarters of inventory adjustment likely through the first half of 2023, because of softening demand for some products such as smartphones and personal computers.

“After two years of pandemic-driven stay-home demand, this type of adjustment is reasonable in our view,” he said.

“Despite ongoing inventory correction, our customers’ demand continues to exceed our ability to supply. We expect our capacity to remain tight throughout 2022”.

© 2022 AFP