TAIPEI: Taiwanese chip giant TSMC said on Thursday (Jul 18) that net profit jumped 36 per cent in the second quarter of 2024, buoyed by global demand for generative artificial intelligence products.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company – whose clients include Apple and Nvidia – controls more than half the world’s output of silicon wafers, used in everything from smartphones and cars to missiles.
Following the runaway success of ChatGPT, TSMC is now at the forefront of a generative AI revolution, churning out the world’s most advanced microchips needed to power products made by Silicon Valley.
The firm said it made US$7.6 billion in April-June, up from US$5.6 billion in the same period last year.
Second-quarter revenues rose 32 per cent on-year to US$20.82 billion, it added in a statement.
“Advanced technologies, defined as 7-nanometer and more advanced technologies, accounted for 67 per cent of total wafer revenue,” it said.
This month the company – listed in Taiwan and New York – briefly broke the US$1 trillion market capitalisation barrier, putting it ahead of Tesla as the seventh most valuable technology firm.
Its headquarters – and the bulk of its fabrication plants – are in Taiwan, a self-ruled island that China claims as part of its territory.
Beijing has in recent years ramped up military and political pressures on Taiwan, upping the rhetoric of “unification” being “inevitable”.
