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(Bloomberg) -- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. climbed as much as 1.4% after reaffirming its target for capital spending this year, in a sign Apple Inc.’s main chipmaker intends to shore up its lead in advanced semiconductors ahead of a tech recovery.
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Taiwan’s largest company warned Thursday that demand from the mobile and PC industries remains “soft” for now, though the market was stabilizing and likely to improve in the second half. It’s sticking with earlier plans to spend as much as $36 billion upgrading and expanding capacity in 2023.
Executives stressed they must keep up investments in technology for the longer term, particularly as competition intensifies with Samsung Electronics Co. and Intel Corp. Ahead of the earnings, some analysts had speculated TSMC might curtail spending to tide it over a slump.
Shares of chipmaking gear-makers Advantest Corp. and Screen Holdings Co. rose more than 4% in Tokyo Friday after ASML Holding NV gained more than 1% in Europe, buoyed by TSMC’s decision.
TSMC — much like the rest of the industry — is grappling with uncertainty about electronics demand in 2023 and beyond, as consumers and corporations tighten their budgets to deal with soaring inflation and a potential global recession. It expects sales of $15.2 billion to $16 billion this quarter, a shade below the $16.1 billion analysts projected on average.
But it gave that outlook after posting first-quarter net income that beat lowered expectations, suggesting it’s keeping a lid on costs while taking advantage of its market leadership. It’s projecting gross margins of 52% to 54%, generally in line with the 52.5% average estimate.
“We are passing through the bottom of the cycle of TSMC’s business in the second quarter,” Chief Executive Officer C. C. Wei told analysts on a post-earnings conference call. But the PC and smartphone markets “continue to be soft at the present time.”
What Bloomberg Intelligence Says
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is set to suffer the least sales decline among the top five global chip foundries in 2023, even as weak smartphone and PC chips demand dominates the industry this year. Secular demand for AI chips, coupled with TSMC’s steady migration to next-generation process nodes such as N3 in 2H23, N2 in 2025, and 3D-packaging technology, ensure its continued supremacy in the contract-chipmaking market, which could enable long-term gross margin to stay above 53%, far above peers. Overseas capacity expansion will be front and center, especially in the US and Japan, as TSMC is pushed to meet customers’ diversification requests and rises to the challenge of growing competition from Samsung and Intel.