Chipmaker TSMC posts first monthly sales gain since February

TAIWAN Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) posted its first monthly sales gain since February, underlining expectations that the global chip market is on the brink of a gradual recovery from Covid-era troughs.

The world’s largest supplier of made-to-order chips recorded a 15.7 per cent gain in revenue to NT$243.2 billion (S$10.2 billion) in October, the first time monthly sales have grown from a year earlier since February. But revenue for the first 10 months was down 3.7 per cent to NT$1.78 trillion.

TSMC chief executive CC Wei said last month the company was counting on the chip market hitting bottom “very soon”, after more than a year of post-Covid malaise. The artificial intelligence boom has spurred demand for chips that train large language models.

The primary chipmaker to Nvidia and Apple last month projected sales of US$18.8 billion to US$19.6 billion this quarter, ahead of analysts’ expectations. TSMC would need to book roughly US$11.7 billion in sales over the rest of the year to reach the mid-point of that outlook. BLOOMBERG