TSMC, the world's largest foundry (contract chip manufacturing) corporations, delivered an earnings surprise that far exceeded market expectations.
TSMC said on the 15th (local time) that its net profit in the fourth quarter of last year was 505.744 billion Taiwan dollars (about 23.5373 trillion won). That is the largest ever. It broke the all-time high net profit (452.302 billion Taiwan dollars) from the third quarter of last year after just one quarter.
During the same period, revenue and operating profit came to 1.04609 trillion Taiwan dollars (about 48.6955 trillion won) and 564.903 billion Taiwan dollars (about 26.2962 trillion won), respectively. Those figures rose 20.5% and 32.7% from a year earlier. The operating margin reached 54.0%. Net profit, revenue, and operating margin all beat market estimates.
By process, sales from the 3-nanometer (nm) node accounted for 28% of the total. The 5-nanometer node was 35%, and the 7-nanometer node was 14%. As a result, advanced nodes at 7 nanometers and below made up 77% of total sales.
In particular, the expanding share of the 3-nanometer node stands out. TSMC's 3-nanometer sales share jumped from 22% in the first quarter, 24% in the second quarter, and 23% in the third quarter to 28% in the fourth quarter. That is also a record high on a quarterly basis.