TSMC remains a long: Intel winning foundry business is only Intel picking up work where TSMC lacked capacity, partly because TSMC wasn't aggressive enough adding capacity, rather than a competitive threat. x.com 

TSMC's AI-era growth opportunity makes it an incredibly bullish investment. CEO C.C. Wei said its annualized growth opportunity is probably higher than a high-50% CAGR. x.com 

TSMC may lose pricing power as performance gains shift from shrinking transistors to stacking, interconnects and optics, while logic folding could make older processes competitive. Despite strong leading-edge demand, investors may overestimate the profit share its node leadership can retain. Its cautious expansion and past reluctance toward advanced packaging suggest a risk-averse culture that protects returns but could leave it late to disruptive technologies and key customers. x.com 

Architecture changes could lift TSMC wafer demand. Shifting from 12-high to 8-high lifts volumes; an on-device AI phone upgrade cycle would be enormously bullish, while ASIC gains over Nvidia help because ASICs use more wafers. TSMC is arguably more vital to AI buildout than MAG stocks and a reasonable extended-AI-cycle play at a not-crazy multiple, barring big macro events. Margins may not expand as capex rises; a Terrafab partnership, if it happens, would somewhat ease Intel competition risk. … Show more

TSMC is the true picks-and-shovels play on AI, building a foundry moat that will take decades to bridge. It announced a $100B expansion in Arizona, bringing its US commitment to $265B, and CFO Wendell Huang said it is converting 5nm capacity to 3nm to meet demand and will not cede ground to competitors. Arizona costs are 4-5x Taiwan's, with short-term margin dilution, but 2nm now contributes revenue and AI-driven demand should outweigh the upfront capital. x.com 

TSMC's conservative delay in high-NA adoption will be its downfall as Intel's stitching advances sooner. TSMC's larger-mask alternative requires changing the entire stage and is projected for production by 2033; Intel's stitching is substantially derisked and could be ready for volume production in 2027 at the earliest. TSMC's CoWoS and CoPoS shortcomings add to the concern. x.com 

TSMC owns the chokepoint of the AI stack, letting it set the price for everyone at the leading edge. It is reportedly readying larger price hikes for 2nm and 3nm, the nodes where AI GPUs, ASICs, HBM and advanced packaging compete for scarce capacity. x.com 

TSMC's strong AI demand is straining supply, while solid company fundamentals and attractive semiconductor valuations make an abrupt stop to its advance unlikely. TSMC's Wendell Huang expects 2026-28 capex to be significantly higher than in the previous three years to support customer growth; he says most capex is tied to long-term demand. x.com 

TSMC's shifting cost structure is pressuring gross margin despite revenue and EPS beats. TSMC reported Q3 gross margin of 66.4%, down from 67.7% in Q2, and another decline is guided next quarter; Arizona is expected to drag gross margin by 2-4%. TSMC is checking AI data-center progress as it plans wafer capacity, while reiterating long-term AI demand strength. Price hikes may be next, given management's commitment to protect shareholder interests. x.com  x.com 

TSMC is the one company the AI chip boom cannot happen without, since every advanced chip runs through its fabs and Apple, Nvidia, AMD and Qualcomm all depend on it. Q1 profit rose 58% to a record and revenue grew 35% to $35B, with high-performance computing now 61% of sales. It is spending $52-56B on capex this year to build capacity competitors are a decade behind replicating. x.com