Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company‘s fourth-quarter revenue and profit beat expectations, as demand for advanced chips used in artificial intelligence applications continued to surge.
Here are TSMC’s fourth-quarter results versus LSEG consensus estimates:
- Net revenue: 868.46 billion New Taiwan dollars ($26.36 billion), vs. NT$850.08 billion expected
- Net income: NT$374.68 billion, vs. NT$366.61 billion expected
TSMC’s revenue in the December quarter rose 38.8% from a year earlier, while net income rose 57%. The firm had forecast fourth-quarter revenue between $26.1 billion and $26.9 billion.
As the world’s largest contract chip manufacturer TSMC produces advanced processors for clients such as Nvidia and Apple and has benefited from the megatrend in favor of AI.
TSMC’s high-performance computing technology, which encompasses artificial intelligence and 5G applications, drove sales in the fourth quarter, contributing 53% of revenue. That HPC revenue was up 19% from the previous quarter.
The Taiwan-based company first released its December revenue last week, bringing its annual total to NT$ 2.9 trillion — a record-breaking year in sales since the company went public in 1994.
“We observed robust AI related demand from our customers throughout 2024,” Wendell Huang, chief financial officer and vice president at TSMC, said in an earnings call on Thursday, adding that revenue from AI accelerators accounted for “close to a mid-teens percentage” of total revenue in 2024.
“Even after more than tripling in 2024, we forecast our revenue from AI accelerators to double in 2025 as a strong surge in AI-related demand continues as a key enabler of AI applications,” he added.
However, TSMC also faces some headwinds in 2025 from U.S. export controls on China and uncertainty surrounding the trade policy of President-elect Donald Trump, who has threatened to impose broad tariffs and has accused Taiwan of “stealing” the U.S. chip business.
Taiwan-listed shares of TSMC gained 81% in 2024 and were trading 3.75% higher on Thursday.