TSMC becomes global No. 8 in market value, passing Berkshire Hathaway

Taipei, Oct. 15 (CNA) Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker, became the world's eighth biggest company in terms of market capitalization after a rally in its American depositary receipts (ADRs) on U.S. markets overnight.

TSMC's ADRs rose 0.73 percent to close at NT$192.21 Monday boosting the company's market cap to US$996.8 billion, the eighth highest in the world, passing U.S.-based investment firm Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s market value of US$992.4 billion on the same day. Berkshire Hathaway is owned by investment guru Warren Buffett.

TSMC's ADRs hit an intraday high of US$194.25 Monday in line with a robust showing by artificial intelligence chip designer Nvidia Corp., which rose 2.43 percent overnight amid continued optimism toward AI development worldwide, dealers said.

Investors remained upbeat about TSMC's business outlook, expecting the chipmaker to release positive leads at an investor conference scheduled for Thursday as the company has secured large orders not only from Nvidia, but also consumer electronics giant Apple Inc., Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD), another American AI chip designer, and Taiwan-based smartphone IC designer MediaTek Inc.

Market analysts largely anticipate TSMC will post a quarterly sales high in the fourth quarter of this year.

In the third quarter, TSMC posted NT$759.69 billion (US$23.60 billion) in consolidated sales, a quarterly high, up 12.8 percent from a quarter earlier and up almost 39 percent from a year earlier.

The third quarter figure also beat TSMC's previous estimate ranging from NT$728 billion to NT$754 billion.

On the back of the rising popularity of AI applications and high performance computing (HPC) devices, analysts said TSMC could see its sales momentum grow in 2025.

At a mid-July investor conference, TSMC forecast consolidated sales would grow 24-26 percent from a year earlier in 2024 in U.S. dollar terms, topping the expected 10 percent growth in sales for the global semiconductor industry as a whole, excluding the memory chip segment.

Analysts said the market will be watching closely whether TSMC upgrades its sales forecast for 2024 on Thursday.

Analysts said investors will also pay close attention to TSMC's planned capital expenditure in 2025 as how the chipmaker plans its capex will reflect market demand. In July, TSMC said its capex for 2024 is expected to range between US$30.0 billion and US$32.0 billion, up from an estimate of US$28.0 billion to US$32.0 billion made in April.

In Taipei, TSMC shares, the most heavily weighted stock on the local market, rose 2.39 percent to close at NT$1,070.00 Tuesday, pushing up the Taiex, the weighted index on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, by 316.75 points, or 1.38 percent, to end at 23,292.04.

TSMC's gains contributed about 200 points to the Taiex's rise and sent the electronics index and semiconductor sub-index higher by 1.89 percent and 2.09 percent, respectively, Tuesday.