Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Chairman and President C.C. Wei told shareholders Thursday that the chipmaker expects its dollar-denominated revenue to grow more than 30% for the full year 2026, expressing confidence in AI demand even as component price pressures and geopolitical uncertainties cloud the broader economic outlook.
Speaking at the company's annual general meeting in Hsinchu, Wei said artificial intelligence is no longer a data-center-only story. Demand is spreading into personal computers, smartphones, automobiles and IoT devices — a broadening, he argued, that points to durable semiconductor consumption.
From Generative to Agentic: A New Driver of Compute Demand
Wei drew a distinction between today's generative AI — which responds to queries — and the emerging wave of agentic AI, where systems receive instructions and take autonomous action. That shift, he said, will sharply increase the volume of tokens processed by large language models, pushing computing requirements higher and, in turn, sustaining demand for advanced chips.
"Semiconductor demand remains a fundamental demand," Wei said, citing positive signals from TSMC's customers and their customers, most of whom are cloud service providers.
Record 2025 Sets a High Bar Heading Into 2026
TSMC closed 2025 with record figures across the board. Consolidated revenue reached approximately NT$3.81 trillion — up 31.6% year-on-year and roughly 35.9% in U.S. dollar terms — while net profit after tax came in at approximately NT$1.72 trillion, with earnings per share of NT$66.25.
In the first quarter of 2026, TSMC posted consolidated revenue of approximately NT$1.13 trillion, earnings per share of NT$22.08 and after-tax net profit of roughly NT$572.5 billion. For the second quarter, the company has guided for revenue between $39 billion and $40.2 billion, with gross margins projected at 65.5 to 67.5%.
Wei acknowledged ongoing risks — rising component costs are squeezing consumer-facing end markets, and recent Middle East tensions add a layer of macro uncertainty. But he said AI-driven demand for advanced process technology would sustain the company's full-year growth target.
Advanced Nodes Dominate; Next-Generation Processes on Track
Chips manufactured at 7-nanometers and below accounted for 74% of TSMC's total wafer revenue in 2025, up from 69% the year before. The 3-nanometer node, now in its third full year of volume production, represented 24% of wafer revenue. The 2-nanometer node entered mass production in the fourth quarter of 2025, with capacity expected to scale rapidly through this year.
TSMC is pushing ahead on N2P, A16 and A14 nodes. N2P and A16 are both targeted for volume production in the second half of 2026. A14, which employs a second-generation nanosheet transistor architecture, is slated for production in 2028. Wei said these advances are designed to meet growing demand for both high-performance and energy-efficient computing.
Wei reiterated that TSMC "will not forgo any business opportunity," adding that the company is actively working to fulfil customer needs across advanced processes, advanced packaging and specialty technologies.
Mature Nodes: Specialty Focus, Not Commodity Supply
On legacy process technology, Wei said TSMC's posture has not changed. The company is building out capacity with superior yield specifically for specialty applications rather than positioning itself as a general-purpose foundry.
He pointed to TSMC's JASM facility in Japan — designed for CMOS image sensor production — and the ESMC plant in Germany, built for automotive and industrial applications, as examples of this targeted approach. Wei said TSMC has sufficient capacity to serve existing customers and will continue shifting its mature-node mix toward higher-value and strategically important segments.
Wei noted that TSMC's stock climbed from NT$950 (approximately US$29) on the day of last year's annual meeting to NT$2,425 (roughly US$74) on June 3 — a gain of more than 155% over the year.
The company raised its cash dividend to at least NT$24 per share this year, from NT$18 in 2024, an increase of more than 30%. Wei said TSMC will continue investing in technology and capacity to support customer growth, expand profitability and maximize shareholder value.
