TSMC to spend up to USD56b in 2026 as AI demand booms
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The news: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company said that it expects its capital expenditure to reach between USD52 billion and USD56 billion ($77.6 billion and $83.6 billion) during 2026, a marked increase from the USD40.9 billion it spent during 2025, as demand for AI continues to soar.
The numbers: Reported Q4 2025 earnings on Thursday, the world’s largest contract chipmaker reported a 35% increase in fourth-quarter net profit of TW$505.74 billion while revenue increased 20.5% to TW$1.046 trillion. Both revenue and profit came in ahead of expectations.
The chipmaker said first-quarter revenue for 2026 could climb as much as 40% from the year prior to between USD34.6 billion and USD35.8 billion.
The company expects gross profit margin to come in between 63% and 65% for the current quarter.
The context: TSMC’s plans to further boost spending in 2026 suggest that it doesn’t anticipate to see any pullback in orders from large tech clients including Google, Apple and Nvidia.
During an investor briefing following the results release, CEO CC Wei said that the decision to increase spending followed months of checks with major customers, and reflects verified AI-driven demand.
Wendell Huang, senior VP and TSMC and CFO said in a statement on the earnings: “Moving into first quarter 2026, we expect our business to be supported by continued strong demand for our leading-edge process technologies.”
The sources: TSMC earnings release, TSMC earnings presentation, CNBC, WSJ, Reuters
