Taiwan's semiconductor giant TSMC has reported a good third quarter with revenue up 36 percent over a year ago, due to strong demand from chip companies for smartphone and AI-related silicon.

The world's largest semiconductor contract manufacturer said its income for the third quarter ended September 30, 2024 stood at $23.50 billion in US dollars, a 36 percent jump in US dollar figures on the same period last year and 12 percent up on the previous quarter.

Shares in TSMC were 6 percent up in early premarket trade, and are now 80 percent higher in value than at the start of the year.

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Senior VP and Chief Financial Officer Wendell Huang was unequivocal about what has been driving this leap in revenue: "Our business in the third quarter was supported by strong smartphone and AI-related demand for our industry-leading 3 nm and 5 nm technologies."

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This is a situation Huang expects to continue through the fourth quarter, he added.

Broken down by process technology, those advanced 3 nm and 5 nm process nodes now account for more than half the company's revenue, as chipmakers such as Nvidia demand them for their latest products. 5 nm makes up 32 percent of this, with 3 nm accounting for 20 percent of revenue, even though TSMC is still ramping up volume production.

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When looked at in terms of platform, high performance computing (HPC) comprised 51 percent of the silicon supremo's revenue, with smartphone-related manufacturing accounting for 34 percent. IoT chips made up only 7 percent of income, but are the fastest growing segment – up 35 percent quarter on quarter, while DCE (digital consumer electronics) fell by 19 percent.

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Also during this quarter, TSMC broke ground on its [9]first European fabrication facility , which is being constructed in Dresden, Germany and [10]signed a deal with US semiconductor assembly and test firm Amkor Technology for an [11]advanced packaging facility to be built in Peoria, Arizona.

Looking ahead to the end of the current fourth quarter, TSMC forecasts revenue to be up again to between $26.1 billion and $26.9 billion, no doubt on the back of the continuing demand for GPUs to drive model training – so long as the AI wave lasts, that is. ®

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[5] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/15/samsung_hb3me/

[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/10/amd_epyc_turin/

[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/10/intel_arrow_lake_deep_dive/

[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/04/tsmc_amkor_arizona/

[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/30/tsmc_breaks_ground_dresden/

[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/04/tsmc_amkor_arizona/

[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/04/tsmc_amkor_arizona/

[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/