TSMC ramps profits in Q3 as 3nm sales surge

In the 3Q24 the world’s leading foundry, TSMC, saw its sales increase 39 percent year-on-year and its profit jump 54.2 percent on the same basis.

For the quarter TSMC announced a net income of NT$325.26 billion (about US$23.7 billion) on consolidate revenue of NT$759.69 billion (about US$10.1 billion). The strong growth and increased profitability is being driven by the combination of seasonal smartphone sales and strong demand for AI products.

The company predicted that 4Q24 revenue would climb again to be between US$26.1 billion and US$26.9 billion.

The company is clearly outperforming all its chip manufacturing rivals as its 3nm chip sales increased to represent 20 percent of revenue. That climb has moved from 9 percent in 1Q24 to 15 percent in 2Q24.  

In 3Q24 5nm manufacturing accounted for 32 percent and 7nm accounted for 17 percent of sales. TSMC defines these three nodes as its advanced technologies, and notes the accounted for 69 percent of total wafer revenue.

“Our business in the third quarter was supported by strong smartphone and AI-related demand for our industry-leading 3nm and 5nm technologies,” said Wendell Huang, CFO of TSMC, in a statement.