The Quarter in Brief
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the contract manufacturer that makes the most advanced chips for most of the world's leading chip designers, reported its third quarter of 2026, the three months ended September 30, on October 15, before the US market opened. Net revenue was NT$1,494.2 billion, up 50.9% from NT$989.9 billion a year earlier. In US dollars, the currency TSMC guides in, revenue was $46.72 billion, up 41.2% and above the top of the company's own range of $44.6 to $45.8 billion. Net income was NT$763.1 billion and earnings per share were NT$29.43, up 68.7%; per American depositary receipt (ADR, the US-listed unit that represents five Taiwan shares) that is $4.60, against $2.92 a year earlier.
Analysts had expected less. Financial Modeling Prep's consensus was $45.67 billion of revenue and $4.45 per ADR. TSMC reports only under Taiwan's version of international accounting rules (Taiwan IFRS) and gives no "adjusted" earnings figure, so the comparison is on reported numbers. What made the quarter different was where the money came from: high performance computing, TSMC's name for chips that go into AI accelerators, data-centre processors and networking, rose to 68% of revenue from 57% a year earlier, and its newest 2-nanometer process reached 8% of wafer revenue less than a year after volume production began.