TSMC's first-quarter revenue surges 42%, slightly ahead of forecasts

By Ben Blanchard and Wen-Yee Lee

TAIPEI (Reuters) -TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, said on Thursday that first-quarter revenue jumped 42%, slightly ahead of a market consensus, benefiting from the boom in artificial intelligence.

Revenue for January-March came in at T$839.3 billion ($25.6 billion), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co said in a brief statement.

That was a tad higher than an LSEG SmartEstimate of T$835.7 billion drawn from 19 analysts and in line with company guidance of $25 billion to $25.8 billion. It said in February that revenue was likely to come in at the lower end of that range due to a $161 million impact from an earthquake in Taiwan in January.

TSMC will report full first-quarter earnings on April 17, including an outlook for the current quarter and full year.

The company, whose customers include Apple and Nvidia, has been one of a major beneficiary of advances in AI which have more than offset the tapering off of pandemic-led demand of chips used in consumer electronics like tablets.

Like other companies, TSMC's shares have plummeted since U.S. President Donald Trump announced across-the-board import tariffs last week, though so far semiconductors have not been included.

Trump's announcement of a tariff pause saw its Taipei-listed stock climb 9.9% on Thursday, putting this year's losses at 19.7%, in line with the broader index's 17.5% drop.

Taiwan's Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics maker and which makes AI servers for Nvidia, has also reported bumper sales, logging its highest-ever revenue for the first quarter.

($1 = 32.8410 Taiwan dollars)

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Wen-Yee Lee; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)