Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co reported a 77.4 percent surge in second-quarter net income to NT$706.56 billion, blowing past the NT$632.64 billion consensus and marking a fifth consecutive quarter of record profit. The world’s largest contract chipmaker also lifted its full-year capital expenditure range to between $60 billion and $64 billion, signaling that the AI-driven spending cycle shows no sign of cooling.
Revenue climbed 36 percent year on year to NT$1.27 trillion, or $39.45 billion, edging above the NT$1.264 trillion estimate. Advanced process nodes, 7-nanometer and below, generated 77 percent of wafer revenue, with the 5-nanometer node contributing 33 percent and the newer 3-nanometer node 30 percent. For the current quarter, TSMC guided revenue of $44.6 billion to $45.8 billion and an operating margin of 56 percent to 58 percent.
Chairman C.C. Wei said AI-related demand remains extremely robust, and the company will pour an additional $100 billion into Arizona, raising its total committed investment in the state to $265 billion. The new outlay funds multiple logic wafer fabs for 2-nanometer mass production and advanced packaging facilities aimed at locking in multi-year demand from leading U.S. customers.
Not all analysts see unfettered pricing power. SemiAnalysis analyst Sravan Kundojjala said TSMC holds far more leverage than it is exercising, choosing deliberate price increases over opportunistic ones to keep margins healthy without alienating customers. At the same time, rising memory prices and tight component supply are pressuring the company’s non-AI segments, particularly consumer and price-sensitive end markets.
High-performance computing accounted for 66 percent of platform revenue in the latest period, with smartphones at 22 percent and internet-of-things at 5 percent. Shares rose 1.23 percent on Thursday and have climbed more than 58 percent this year, leaving investors to weigh whether the Arizona expansion and sustained AI tailwinds justify the premium or whether the memory-driven squeeze on legacy demand will broaden.