(Bloomberg) — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s global chip supply will fall short of AI-fueled demand for years to come, chief executive officer C.C. Wei said, suggesting production capacity remains a key bottleneck in the buildout of global computing infrastructure.
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TSMC won’t be able to fulfill demand led by American customers even as more manufacturing capacity comes online in the US over the next few years, Wei told shareholders on Thursday. Still, Taiwan’s largest company — which makes the majority of the world’s advanced semiconductors for AI — will refrain from initiating the sort of abrupt price hikes that shook up the memory chip sector, Wei added. TSMC’s intent is to ensure a stable business, he said at an annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu, Taiwan.
Wei reiterated a forecast for sales growth of more than 30% for this year — an outlook TSMC raised just weeks ago. Asia’s largest company is an essential player in the global AI industry, making cutting-edge semiconductors for the likes of Nvidia Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. TSMC has been expanding its footprint beyond its home island to add capacity, yet even that isn’t enough to satisfy all needs with major hyperscalers set to spend $725 billion on AI this year alone.
“It will be a long time before we can meet customer demand,” Wei said.
TSMC is racing to expand at a time customers from Nvidia to Broadcom Inc. are vying for access to its cutting-edge facilities.
As part of the US-Taiwan trade pact, the Asian company envisions building at least four more US chipmaking plants — on top of six already planned that entails $165 billion in investments — requiring roughly an additional $100 billion of capital, Bloomberg News has reported. Two plots of land TSMC has acquired in Arizona should be enough to satisfy its needs for a decade, Wei added.
TSMC’s shares slid 1.7% in Taipei after Broadcom provided a disappointing outlook. Still, the stock has more than quadrupled over the past three years, fueled by a surge in its core business. On Thursday, Wei reiterated that TSMC staff will get more than a 30% bump in their bonus payouts this year on average, addressing growing demands for the winners of the AI boom to share more of their profits.
