TSMC posts record quarterly profit as AI demand grows

Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC reported a record net profit for the second quarter, saying demand for artificial intelligence hardware helped drive the result.

Net profit for April to June rose 77.4 percent from a year earlier to NT$706.6 billion, or US$22 billion. The result was above analyst estimates of NT$624.4 billion and beat TSMC's previous quarterly record of NT$572.48 billion in the first quarter of 2026.

Quarterly revenue rose 36 percent to NT$1.3 trillion.

TSMC is the world's biggest contract maker of microchips used in products including Apple phones and Nvidia processors. The company has benefited as governments and technology companies spend heavily on data centres used to train and run AI tools, including chatbots, image generators and software agents.

Chairman CC Wei told an earnings call that the AI trend continued to increase demand for computation.

Counterpoint Research senior analyst William Li said TSMC's revenue growth showed that AI infrastructure investment remained very strong despite wider economic uncertainty. He said demand for AI GPUs, AI ASICs and advanced packaging continued to exceed expectations, but said limits in extreme ultraviolet lithography tool supply and overseas fabrication investments could restrict capacity growth and weigh on margins in the near term.

Concerns about high valuations in the technology sector have raised fears of an AI-related market bubble. Omdia principal analyst Simon Chen said those fears were overstated, saying demand was structural and backed by large capital spending from hyperscalers.