TSMC sales grow 30% on sustained global demand for AI hardware

Published Tue, Mar 10, 2026 · 03:08 PM

[TAIPEI] Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC) sales rose 30 per cent in the first two months of the year, buoyed by the robust pace of AI infrastructure construction prior to the outbreak of conflict in the Middle East.

Revenue in January and February together grew to NT$718.9 billion (S$29 billion), the company said on Tuesday (Mar 10). Analysts on average expect a 33 per cent increase in the first quarter. February sales rose 22 per cent, with growth affected by the Chinese New Year holidays, which fell in January in 2025.

The go-to chipmaker for Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom serves as a barometre for the global AI industry, with attention now on how the US and Israel’s strike on Iran will affect appetite to build data centres and other digital infrastructure.

Alphabet, Amazon.com, Meta Platforms and Microsoft have earmarked more than US$650 billion in spending this year, but warnings over overcapacity and uncertainty over how to monetise the technology linger.

The construction of AI data centres can cost tens of billions of US dollars and require coordination with power generation and electrical grid operators, as well as suppliers and debt providers.

Oracle and OpenAI have scrapped plans to expand a flagship artificial intelligence data centre in Texas after negotiations dragged over financing and OpenAI’s changing needs, Bloomberg News reported last week. BLOOMBERG