You are reading Semiconductor Reports (a sister pub of Semiconductor Things), where I’ll be sharing some insights on Datacenter, Semiconductor, Nvidia and TSMC news in particular.
In 2025 we are going to see incredible Semiconductor coverage begin to take place on Substack. When I can tune into
of Tech Soda or of Semiconductor Business Intelligence, you don’t have to look far.TSMC’s revenue in the December quarter rose 38.8% from a year earlier to NT$868.46 billion, while net income rose 57.0% to a record NT$374.68 billion.
The most important is the company's fantastic profits in Q4-24: Operating profit is up 62% YoY and 18% QoQ, driven by the high demand for TSMC AI customers.
High Performance Computing grew 19% QoQ to 53% of total revenue, and surprisingly, Mobile grew 17%. 3nm Revenue grew with an astonishing 44% QoQ, now representing 26% of the total revenue. -
, Note.
Judy’s TechSoda provided Q&A information that is also invaluable.
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TSMC is in 2025 becoming one of the most important Tech companies to watch globally. It’s also fashionable now to write historical analyses of TSMC or books about it.
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With the relative decline of Intel and Samsung in 2024, TSMC has an elevated position in the world.
On an earnings call, the company predicted Q1 2025 revenue to increase between 32.5 per cent and 36.7 per cent to $25 billion to $25.8 billion, with its gross margin expected to remain at 57 per cent to 59 per cent.
Nvidia's most sophisticated AI chip, named Blackwell, is composed of several chips merged using a complex chip on wafer on substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology provided by TSMC.
In US dollars, fourth quarter revenue was $26.88 billion, which increased 37.0% year-over-year and increased 14.4% from the previous quarter.
TSMC’s Historic Q4
TSMC profit rose 57% from a year earlier to a record high, while revenue jumped 38.8%. The firm had forecast fourth-quarter revenue between $26.1 billion and $26.9 billion.
Despite reports from Taiwan media that Nvidia was reducing CoWoS-S orders from TSMC, potentially impacting the Taiwanese chip foundry's revenue, Nvidia's Blackwell chips continue to sell as quickly as TSMC can manufacture them.
Another Newsletter I find super informative is the following:
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How is the stock doing? TSMC's Taipei-listed shares rose 12% in the fourth quarter, taking its 2024 gains to 81% amid robust demand for the foundry's advanced chips. On the TPE it’s up 90% in the past year.
High Performance Computing: HPC revenue was up 19% from the previous quarter.
“The surging demand for AI chips has exceeded expectations in Q4,” Brady Wang, associate director at Counterpoint Research
In the fourth quarter, shipments of 3-nanometer accounted for 26% of total wafer revenue; 5- nanometer accounted for 34%; 7-nanometer accounted for 14%.
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The Taiwan-based company first released its December revenue last week, bringing its annual total to NT$ 2.9 trillion — a record-breaking year in sales since the company went public in 1994.
TSMC has never been so important on the global stage with the datacenter acceleration and Capex of BigTech and China exploding in the mid 2020s.
Counterpoint’s Wang forecasts 2025 to be another strong year for TSMC, with significant revenue growth fueled by strong and expanding demand for AI applications, both in diversity and volume, according to CNBC.
TSMC’s number are hard to overstate in scale: Gross margin for the quarter was 59.0%, operating margin was 49.0%, and net profit margin was 43.1%.
TSMC’s History is Being more widely read
TSMC’s history is also becoming more popular among Western and english readers.
Judy’s Q&A coverage is truly invaluable for understanding TSMC’s balanced point of view.
TSMC Chief Executive C.C Wei said he believes that U.S. export controls on AI chips for China were a manageable issue for the company.
In recent years, TSMC has expanded its operations beyond Taiwan to enhance its global footprint and meet the increasing demand for semiconductor manufacturing. In Japan, Arizona, Germany and so forth.
Guidance 2025:
Based on the Company’s current business outlook, management expects the overall performance for first quarter 2025 to be as follows:
Revenue is expected to be between US$25.0 billion and US$25.8 billion; And, based on the exchange rate assumption of 1 US dollar to 32.8 NT dollars,
Gross profit margin is expected to be between 57% and 59%;
Operating profit margin is expected to be between 46.5% and 48.5%.
TSMC pioneered the pure-play foundry business model when it was founded in 1987, and has been the world’s leading dedicated semiconductor foundry ever since.
It’s hard to put into words how much some of the world’s most valuable companies like Apple or Nvidia depend upon TSMC and their partners. This makes Taiwan the most important technology nexus in the world by a wide margin in my humble opinion.
TSMC’s efficiency and world leading position along with its ability to adapt and innovate in response to market needs is unparalleled in the semiconductor industry. This means more Western companies are going to build satellite teams in Taiwan itself in the years ahead.
Capex is also increasingly quickly mirroring the unique opportunity of the times. TSMC, which is building new fabs in the United States, Japan, Germany and Taiwan, said it expects its capital spending for this year to be between $38 billion and $42 billion, an increase of as much as 41%.