Profit beats expectations as AI boom fuels 54% surge

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company reported a 54% jump in net profit on Thursday as global chipmakers continue to benefit from demand boosted by AI applications.

The company's net profit was 352.3 billion Taiwanese dollars ($10.1 billion) in the July-September quarter, beating the LSEG estimate of 300.2 billion Taiwanese dollars cited by Reuters.

TSMC is the world's largest manufacturer of advanced chips, serving customers such as Apple And Nvidia.

Net sales were $23.5 billion in the third quarter, up 36% year over year. TSMC's gross margin rose to 57.8% in the July-September period, compared to 54.3% in the same period last year.

Capital spending rose slightly to $6.4 billion in the third quarter, compared with $6.36 billion in the previous three months.

TSMC's earnings increase comes in the same week as the Netherlands-based company ASMLwhich supplies machinery to the Taiwanese company, gave a lower-than-expected forecast for net sales, causing shares to plunge.

This breaking news story will be updated.