New York, June 10, 2026, 08:02 ET
- TSMC booked all-time high May sales at NT$416.98 billion, climbing 30.1% on the year and up 1.5% against April.
- TSMC shares in Taiwan slipped 2.17% even as the Taiex lost 3.31%. The company’s U.S.-listed ADRs were also lower ahead of the open.
- Investors are now focused less on if AI chip demand holds up and more on whether TSMC can build enough capacity without hitting margin problems, supply chain issues, or geopolitical pressure.
TSMC posted record monthly revenue on Wednesday, offering the firmest sign yet that sales are strong. Shares dropped anyway. It’s not about demand for AI chips—the market already gets that. Now investors want to know if TSMC can handle the load without pushing too hard on capacity, margins or their patience.
TSMC reported May consolidated net revenue at NT$416.98 billion, a gain of 30.1% from May 2025 and 1.5% higher than April. For January through May, revenue hit NT$1.962 trillion, up 30.0% from a year earlier.
May wasn’t just strong for TSMC. Focus Taiwan said the month topped the earlier record of NT$415.19 billion from March, putting the chipmaker on track for what could be its best quarter yet.
TSMC shares slid 2.17% to NT$2,255 in Taipei as tech stocks dragged the market lower. The Taiex index finished down 3.31%, or 1,478.90 points, at 43,225.54. Focus Taiwan says TSMC makes up over 40% of the exchange’s total value.
The U.S.-listed ADRs for TSMC fell in premarket action. The receipts closed at $427.92 on Tuesday, but were quoted at $411.44 before the bell at 8:00 a.m. ET, according to Public.com. That’s a drop of 3.85%. Premarket volumes are often light and moves can be choppy. The pullback tracked the selling seen earlier in Taipei.
AI spending is showing up in company numbers now, not just the macro data. Reuters said Tuesday that Taiwan’s exports in May rose 51.7% year-on-year to $78.48 billion, the second biggest monthly figure ever, powered by demand for AI chips and cloud tech. TSMC’s May results brought that broad trend into a single company’s sales line.
TSMC’s numbers so far land inside its second-quarter forecast. The chipmaker is steering for Q2 revenue between $39.0 billion and $40.2 billion, with gross margin expected in a 65.5% to 67.5% band. TSMC Focus Taiwan said April and May revenue was NT$827.7 billion, which is already a significant chunk of what TSMC needs for the full quarter.
TSMC has spelled out its AI exposure. On its first-quarter call, the chipmaker said high-performance computing, which covers data-center and AI chips, drove 61% of revenue. TSMC reported advanced technologies at 7nm and below brought in 74% of wafer revenue.
Capacity is putting pressure on the trade. TSMC CEO C.C. Wei told reporters after the firm’s June 4 shareholder meeting, “Customer demand is so high, and we can only support so much. We are already working very hard.” Wei also said TSMC is trying not to be a bottleneck in the global supply chain. Reuters
Intel is now in the TSMC conversation this week after Reuters on Monday said Alphabet’s Google ordered over three million tensor processing units from Intel for 2028, citing The Information. Nvidia is also weighing Intel tech for a future chip, though Reuters said it couldn’t verify that. “It’s evidence that AI’s biggest players are racing to diversify a supply chain still heavily concentrated in TSMC,” Jacob Bourne, tech analyst at eMarketer, told Reuters. Reuters
Even with record sales, risk hangs over TSMC. If AI spending cools, or if customers send more orders to rivals like Intel, or if trade and geopolitics hit chip demand, defending TSMC’s premium could get tougher. The company also flagged that building new fabs abroad and ramping 2-nanometer output might erode gross margin. Prices for some inputs could also rise with Middle East tensions, although TSMC said in April it was not expecting short-term operational issues.
June sales are the next real test. TSMC is set to report June 2026 revenue on July 10, according to its financial calendar. That number will say if May was the high point or if the quarter is strong enough to get past today’s tech drop.
