TSMC will keep posting breakout earnings even as Intel ramps its foundry, announces deals and spends on fabs, because foundry competition is not zero-sum. x.comÂ
Justin Halford
Founder of Voyadoc
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.comÂ
TSMC's earnings set the stage for a strong reporting season. Hold the line on TSMC despite its shares being caught in SOXX's algorithmic sell-off; StockMKTNewz reported that TSMC beat quarterly revenue and EPS estimates. x.comÂ
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.comÂ
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.comÂ
TSMC's growth looks compelling against its valuation. Diluted GAAP EPS rose about 70% year over year and US-dollar revenue 41%; at roughly 22 times annualized earnings, guidance implies accelerating growth. TSMC expects continued demand for leading-edge processes, including its 2-nanometer ramp. x.comÂ
TSMC's growth is constrained by capacity, so its growth rate is already known and priced in. x.comÂ
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.comÂ
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's failure to prioritize Apple marks an irreversible turning point that the market will take a long time to price, even though near-term results won't be hurt. Apple paid development costs for 2nm and saw itself as a de facto shareholder, yet got no priority supply. TSMC is not expanding capacity and told Google to go through back-end partners. That treatment drives customers like Apple toward Intel, and years from now CC Wei's stance will be looked back on with regret. x.com x.com x.com … Show more
TSMC will still dominate and remains a good stock to own, though buyers now may be a bit late to the party. It has been a critical bottleneck for the semiconductor industry for half a decade, not just becoming one. Intel is becoming a viable threat and Samsung may eventually become one too. x.comÂ