TSMC rides AI demand to raise revenue forecast, says no to US joint venture
TSMC forecasts Q3 revenue to rise to $22.4-$23.2 bln
Q2 net profit T$247.8 bln (market expectation T$238.8 bln)
Q2 revenue rises 33% year-on-year to $20.8 bln
Shares close down 2.4%
Adds chip industry market share context in paragraph 7
By Yimou Lee, Ben Blanchard and Faith Hung
TAIPEI, July 18 (Reuters) -Taiwan's TSMC 2330.TW, the world's largest contract chipmaker, raised its full-year revenue forecast on Thursday given surging demand for chips used in artificial intelligence, and rejected the idea of a joint venture factory in the United States.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) TSM.N, a major Apple Inc AAPL.O and Nvidia NVDA.O supplier, has benefited from the global AI boom that has helped it weather the tapering off of pandemic-led electronics demand.
The bellwether for the chip industry earlier on Thursday posted net profit that beat market expectations. It raised its 2024 revenue forecast to growth of slight to above the mid-20% range in U.S. dollar terms, versus a previous prediction of an increase in the low to mid-20% range.
"AI is so hot; right now everybody, all my customers, want to put AI functionality into their devices," Chairman and CEO C.C. Wei told analysts and reporters at an earnings conference.
The company's U.S.-listed shares rose 3.3% in pre-market trading following the results.
Its Taiwan-listed shares closed down 2.4% before the earnings announcement, extending falls this week after U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said thatTaiwan "did take about 100% of our chip business" and should pay the U.S. for its defence.
The United States has about 10% of the world's chip manfacturing capacity, down from 19% in 2000, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association, a group representing the U.S. chip industry. Taiwan has about 18%, down from 22% in 2000.
TSMC is spending $65 billion on three plants in the U.S. state of Arizona and has other new factories in operation or planning stages in Japan and Germany, which have partner investors.
Asked if TSMC would consider a joint venture in the United States following Trump's comments, Wei said no.
"So far we did not change any of our original plans of expansion of our overseas fabs. We continue to expand in Arizona, in Kumamoto, and maybe in future in Europe. No change in our strategy. We continue in our current practice," he added.
On whether TSMC has enough capacity to support the demand for chips, he said things were "very, very tight".
"We are working very, very hard to get enough capacity to support my customers from now all the way to next year, to 2026."
CFO Wendell Huang said supply for leading edge nodes, including its 3nm and 5nm, would remain very tight next year.
SMARTPHONE CHIPS DEMAND
For the current quarter, TSMC said its revenue would increase by as much as 34%, in a range of between $22.4 billion to $23.2 billion.
The company adjusted its capital expenditure plans for this year to between $30 billion and $32 billion, compared with a previous forecast of $28 billion to $32 billion.
TSMC's April-June net profit climbed to T$247.8 billion ($7.60 billion) from T$181.8 billion a year earlier.
The profit beat a T$238.8 billion estimate for the quarter ended June 30, according to an LSEG SmartEstimate drawn from 21 analysts. SmartEstimates give greater weighting to forecasts from analysts who are more consistently accurate.
"Moving into the third quarter of 2024, we expect our business to be supported by strong smartphone and AI-related demand for our leading-edge process technologies," Huang said.
Second-quarter revenue at TSMC, Asia's most valuable publicly listed company, rose by 33% to $20.8 billion, better than the company's previous forecast of $19.6 billion to $20.4 billion.
($1 = 32.6000 Taiwan dollars)
Reporting by Yimou Lee, Ben Blanchard and Faith Hung; Additional reporting by James Pomfret; Writing by Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Muralikumar Anantharaman and Emelia Sithole-Matarise
면책조항: XM Group 회사는 체결 전용 서비스와 온라인 거래 플랫폼에 대한 접근을 제공하여, 개인이 웹사이트에서 또는 웹사이트를 통해 이용 가능한 콘텐츠를 보거나 사용할 수 있도록 허용합니다. 이에 대해 변경하거나 확장할 의도는 없습니다. 이러한 접근 및 사용에는 다음 사항이 항상 적용됩니다: (i) 이용 약관, (ii) 위험 경고, (iii) 완전 면책조항. 따라서, 이러한 콘텐츠는 일반적인 정보에 불과합니다. 특히, 온라인 거래 플랫폼의 콘텐츠는 금융 시장에서의 거래에 대한 권유나 제안이 아닙니다. 금융 시장에서의 거래는 자본에 상당한 위험을 수반합니다.
온라인 거래 플랫폼에 공개된 모든 자료는 교육/정보 목적으로만 제공되며, 금융, 투자세 또는 거래 조언 및 권고, 거래 가격 기록, 금융 상품 또는 원치 않는 금융 프로모션의 거래 제안 또는 권유를 포함하지 않으며, 포함해서도 안됩니다.
이 웹사이트에 포함된 모든 의견, 뉴스, 리서치, 분석, 가격, 기타 정보 또는 제3자 사이트에 대한 링크와 같이 XM이 준비하는 콘텐츠 뿐만 아니라, 제3자 콘텐츠는 일반 시장 논평으로서 "현재" 기준으로 제공되며, 투자 조언으로 여겨지지 않습니다. 모든 콘텐츠가 투자 리서치로 해석되는 경우, 투자 리서치의 독립성을 촉진하기 위해 고안된 법적 요건에 따라 콘텐츠가 의도되지 않았으며, 준비되지 않았다는 점을 인지하고 동의해야 합니다. 따라서, 관련 법률 및 규정에 따른 마케팅 커뮤니케이션이라고 간주됩니다. 여기에서 접근할 수 있는 앞서 언급한 정보에 대한 비독립 투자 리서치 및 위험 경고 알림을 읽고, 이해하시기 바랍니다.
