TSMC Sales Surge 36% in Q2 Driven by Soaring AI Hardware Demand

Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC reported a 36% increase in sales in the second quarter of 2024, driven by strong demand for AI-related hardware. Bloomberg calculations estimate the company’s revenue for the three months ending in June reached $39.6 billion, in line with forecasts. June alone saw a 68% year-over-year sales jump and a 6.2% increase compared to May. TSMC, a leading chip supplier for companies like Nvidia and Apple, plays a critical role in producing advanced chips for data centers and smartphones, making its performance a key indicator of global AI infrastructure demand.

CEO Che-Chia Wei warned last month that TSMC will struggle to meet the high demand in the coming years. Similarly, South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix revealed that memory chip shortages are expected to continue past 2030 due to massive data center construction worldwide. TSMC announced plans to invest $56 billion in capital expenditures this year and will release its full quarterly results and annual sales forecast on Thursday.

For the first half of 2024, TSMC’s total revenue reached 2.4 trillion New Taiwan dollars (approximately $75 billion), a 35.6% increase compared to the same period in 2023. Analyst Sarwan Koundgjala told CNBC that TSMC’s data indicates a tight supply-demand balance in AI chips, with all N3 chip production capacity fully sold out this year. He estimated that AI chip sales will exceed $40 billion in 2024, accounting for nearly 25% of TSMC’s total revenue. Reuters reported that TSMC plans to add two new manufacturing plants in Taiwan, with one already under construction and the other starting soon.