(Feb 10): Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s January sales grew at their fastest clip in months, a sign of sustained global AI spending even as concerns persist about an industry bubble.
The contract chipmaker for Nvidia Corp reported a 37% rise in January revenue to NT$401.3 billion, above the 30% revenue growth TSMC expects for the full year. The year-ago comparison, however, may have been affected by the Lunar New Year holidays, which in 2025 fell in January.
TSMC, which also produces chips for Apple Inc, has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of a surge in artificial intelligence-related investment, due to its role in manufacturing advanced AI accelerators.
Demand for data centre chips in particular is spurring TSMC to earmark as much as US$56 billion in capital spending this year, which would be up a quarter from 2025. Last week, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called the capex spree a “once-in-a-generation infrastructure buildout”.
But the mammoth spending by large technology companies like Amazon.com Inc and Meta Platforms Inc is also worrying investors who wonder if artificial intelligence will benefit those betting the most. The circular nature of many data centre agreements is also causing trepidation among those who’ve been hurt by boom-and-bust tech cycles in the past.
Uploaded by Arion Yeow
