TSMC Stock Jumps. It’ll Spend $40 Billion to Expand Chip Capacity.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Thursday reported a 16.4% jump in net profit for the last quarter of 2021, on a sales jump of 21.2% from the same quarter of 2020.
Revenue at the world’s largest contract chip maker (ticker: TSM), and a major supplier of Apple (AAPL) or Qualcomm (QCOM), was boosted by enormous demand for the company’s chips, on the back of increased use of smartphones, home computers, and other technological gadgets during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The company’s products are also in high demand for products transformed by technological innovation, such as 5G networks and electric vehicles.
Fourth-quarter revenue in dollar terms jumped by 24.1% to $75.74 billion, the company said.
In a context of tight capacity for the chip industry worldwide, TSMC said it is planning to invest between $40 billion and $44 billion this year.
The company announced in April last year that it would spend $100 billion by 2024 to “support the manufacturing and R&D of advanced semiconductor technologies,” as demand for its chips keeps growing at a faster pace than supply, even with factories running at 100% capacity.
Operating margin in the fourth quarter was 37.9%, the company said.
Shares of TSMC’s American depositary receipts were up 4.7% Thursday, giving the company a $611 billion market capitalization.
Write to Pierre Briançon at [email protected]