World's biggest chipmaker TSMC's sales surge 45% amid buoyant AI demand

Investors are closely scrutinizing Big Tech spending and return on investment, as the sector continues to funnel unprecedented amounts of capital into building out AI infrastructure, including designing and buying semiconductors. TSMC manufactures chips for a variety of customers, including Nvidia and Google's own.

Demand in the semiconductor industry, however, can shift quickly so it is important that people do not read too much into the monthly numbers as they can jump around. TSMC does not provide commentary on its monthly revenue figures.

What Happened

Amid some of the market jitters around AI capex, semiconductor stocks have seen a recent sell-off.

• TSMC, the world's biggest chip manufacturer, reported revenue for July of 467.58 billion New Taiwan dollars ($14.5 billion), up 44.7% year on year.

• TSMC is now guiding for 40% growth in revenues for this year, so July's numbers put it ahead of that figure.

• But the company's second-quarter earnings reported last month showed that high-performance computing, which is where TSMC books AI chip sales, accounted for 66% of revenue.

Key Details

The company struck a bullish tone during its earnings report and said it expects 2026 revenue to increase by slightly above 40% in U.S.

• TSMC also raised its capital expenditure projection to between $60 billion and $64 billion for this year.

• European semiconductor stocks rose on Monday with ASML up more than 2%, and Infineon and STMicro also trading higher.

• The PHLX Semiconductor index, which tracks a basket of chip stocks, is down around 15% from its June high.

Why It Matters

However, it is still around 72% higher for the year.

What Reports Say

Coverage of the story so far points to:

• Continued reporting by CNBC as more details emerge