TSMC is the world’s largest foundry. The company takes designs for chips created by companies like Apple, Qualcomm, MediaTek, and others, and builds them. TSMC reported that for the second quarter, the firm generated a record quarterly profit of 237.03 billion Taiwanese dollars ($7.9 billion U.S. Dollars), up 76.4% year-on-year and ahead of estimates. That was a record quarter in terms of net income for TSMC.
Inside a TSMC clean room,, yellow light is used to prevent interference with the UV light used to mark up circuit patterns
TSMC surprisingly says that it has “excessive chip inventory” thanks to “softening demand” for PC’s, smartphones, and other consumer products. TSMC says that it will take a few quarters before the chip industry rebalances. TSMC CEO C.C. Wei says, “Our suppliers have been facing greater challenges in supply chains, which are extending tool delivery times for both our advanced and mature nodes,” Wei stated.
Still, the trend is not TSMC investors’ friend with the foundry’s stick price down $48.20 or 36.02% over the last six months to $85.63 a share. With the list of customers that TSMC has, especially Apple, MediaTek, and Qualcomm, the foundry shouldn’t run into any serious economic issues in the short term.
