Taipei, April 17 (CNA) Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) on Thursday announced record first-quarter net profits, with market analysts attributing the strong showing to robust global artificial intelligence demand.
In a statement, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said it posted first-quarter net profits of NT$361.56 billion (US$11.11 billion), up 60.4 percent from a year earlier.
Despite the historic showing, TSMC’s results for the January-March period — traditionally a slow season for the chip industry — were down from the fourth quarter of 2024.
Net profit fell 3.5 percent compared with the previous quarter.
TSMC posted NT$13.94 in earnings per share, compared with NT$8.70 a year earlier and NT$14.45 a quarter earlier.
The chipmaker’s first-quarter consolidated sales stood at US$25.53 billion, a year-over-year increase of 35.3 percent and down 5.1 percent from the fourth quarter last year.
First-quarter revenues came within the previous market estimate of US$25.0-US$25.8 billion, hitting NT$839.25 billion, a 41.6 percent increase from a year earlier and a 3.4 percent quarterly decline.
TSMC said chips made on its advanced 3 nanometer process, its latest technology to enter commercial production, accounted for around 22 percent of its total sales in the first quarter.
With the addition of 5nm process (36 percent) and 7 nm process (15 percent) sales, TSMC’s three leading technologies accounted for 73 percent of its first-quarter revenues.
TSMC’s gross margin — the difference between revenue and cost of goods sold — fell 0.2 percentage points from a quarter earlier to 58.8 percent in the first quarter, in line with the company’s earlier forecast of 57.0-59.0 percent.
Analysts attributed the decline to a 6.4 magnitude earthquake hitting Taiwan on Jan. 21 and higher production costs at TSMC’s expanded overseas facilities.
The chipmaker’s first wafer fabs in the U.S. state of Arizona and Kumamoto, Japan both started commercial production in 2024.
Revenue generated from TSMC’s high-performance computing device platform rose 7 percent from a quarter earlier, with sales posted by the automotive electronics division up 14 percent and sales generated by its consumer electronics division up 8 percent.
However, sales generated from TSMC’s smartphone division and Internet of Things platform fell 22 percent and 9 percent, respectively, from a quarter earlier.
