TSMC Third-Quarter Revenue Hits Record NT$1.49 Trillion, Up 50% Year on Year

TSMC reported September revenue of NT$511.86 billion, topping NT$500 billion for a second straight month and rising 54.6% year on year, the second-highest monthly total on record. That finish pushed third-quarter revenue to a record NT$1.49 trillion, or about US$46.71 billion, up 50% year on year and ahead of the LSEG SmartEstimate of NT$1.46 trillion compiled from 19 analysts. The result also beat the company's own third-quarter guidance issued in July of US$44.6 billion to US$45.8 billion, which implied roughly NT$1.427 trillion to NT$1.466 trillion at an assumed exchange rate of NT$32 per US dollar. Cumulative revenue for the first nine months of 2026 reached approximately NT$3.899 trillion, up 41.1% from a year earlier.

Profitability is the next focus ahead of the October 15 earnings call. Analysts cited by LSEG expect third-quarter net profit to jump 64% year on year to NT$740.8 billion. TSMC had guided for a third-quarter gross margin of 65% to 67% and an operating margin of 56% to 58%, both below the second quarter's 67.7% and 60.3%, reflecting overseas fab dilution and continued heavy investment. Taiwanese media attributed the record quarter to robust AI demand and a pickup in inventory build ahead of new smartphone launches, and analysts expect revenue to climb further in the fourth quarter on demand for NVIDIA's Vera Rubin platform and TSMC's 2nm process technology.

Capacity and portfolio decisions are shifting elsewhere in the industry as well. Samsung is reported to be exiting automotive application processors as it restructures its chip design business, shifting resources toward mobile application processors and image sensors in a push for a 2027 System LSI turnaround. The move underscores how tight advanced capacity has become: designers are concentrating wafer allocations on the highest-margin products while AI accelerators, server CPUs and high-bandwidth memory absorb leading-edge logic and advanced packaging capacity. For TSMC, the combination of sustained AI demand, the 2nm ramp and continued foundry pricing power points to another record quarter ahead.

The read-through for the wider supply chain is that leading-edge utilisation is effectively sold out rather than merely firm. When a designer of Samsung's scale withdraws from a segment to protect mobile and imaging margins, the marginal wafer goes to AI and server products instead, which is exactly the mix that has carried TSMC's revenue growth above 50%. That concentration also raises the stakes on the 2nm ramp and on advanced packaging capacity, both of which now gate how much of the booked demand converts into shipped revenue in 2027.