TSMC reports record quarterly revenue as demand for its most advanced chips grows

TSMC reported third-quarter 2026 revenue of US$46.7 billion, up 41.2% year on year, and net income up 68.7% year on year — its sixth consecutive quarter of record profit. Chips made on advanced nodes of 7 nanometres or smaller accounted for 79% of wafer revenue, with 2-nanometre production, still ramping, already at 8%. The company guided fourth-quarter revenue to $52.3–54.3 billion, a further rise of roughly 14% at the midpoint.

TSMC’s own release attributed the quarter to “continued strong demand for our leading-edge process technologies,” including the 2-nanometre ramp, without naming AI explicitly. Chief financial officer Wendell Huang’s language was about process nodes, not end markets. Other outlets covering the results, including CNBC, characterised the quarter as driven by AI-chip demand, and described the gap between supply and demand for leading-edge capacity as substantial.

The same week brought corroborating evidence from elsewhere in the chip supply chain. ASML, the Dutch firm that makes the lithography machines TSMC depends on for advanced nodes, reported Q3 net sales of €11.7 billion and net income of €5.0 billion, selling 113 new systems against 86 the previous quarter. Chief executive Christophe Fouquet said ASML’s planned 2027–28 supply “will not fully meet the demand of our customers,” attributing the shortfall to AI-related investment forecasts, and said the company was looking at ways to expand capacity further as some customers began asking about orders for 2029 and 2030.

Neither company put a figure on how much of the demand came from AI rather than the wider chip market.