TSMC flies in the third quarter: net profit grows by 80%

If on the one hand the PC sector is slowing down and with it realities such as AMD, Intel and NVIDIA, the Taiwanese manufacturer for third parties TSMC doesn’t seem to have setbacks, at least for now.

I financial results of the third quarter highlight an increase in turnover of almost 48% compared to the same period last year, with net profit up almost 80%. In a nutshell, TSMC achieved a turnover of 613 billion Taiwanese dollars (about 20.23 billion US dollars) and a net profit of 281 billion Taiwanese dollars (about 9.27 billion US dollars) in Q3 2022. The numbers, when compared to Q2 2022, show that TSMC increased its turnover by 14.8% and net profit by 18.5%.

TSMC, it should be remembered, not only produces the chips that we find in PCs or components dedicated to the sector, but also produces solutions for the automotive world, solutions for the HPC sector and above all SoCs for the world of smartphones, in particular for Apple. The latter has a great impact on the accounts, especially near the launch of the new iPhones.

TSMC has repeatedly raised the price of wafer production to its customers in the last two years and is preparing for new increases at the beginning of 2023. A higher bill which, according to rumors, Apple would have opposed, capitulating like all the other realities affected by the new production lists.

28% of Taiwanese “foundry” sales come from chips produced at 5nm and derivative processes, while those at 7 nm and its variants stop at 26%. A gap that will increase in the coming months with the passage of an ever higher number of realities to the N5 and N4 processes. And precisely these technologies should push TSMC’s accounts into the fourth quarterwith the Taiwanese company that expects similar revenues, between $ 19.9 and $ 20.7 billion with virtually unchanged margins.

In terms of capital expenditure (Capex), i.e. investments in machinery and new production lines, TSMC says the calculation will stop this year 36 billion dollars, compared to an initial forecast of between 40 and 44 billion dollars. The company, for now, has not released estimates on the 2023 Capex.

Asked about a possible investment in Europe, the CEO of TSMC has neither confirmed nor denied, implying that nothing has been decided. For months there have been rumors of TSMC’s commitment in the Old Continent to better serve local customers, with Italy and Germany in the lot of potential candidates to host a production plant.