TSMC runs record profit in 2025, looks to speed up expansion in U.S.

Taipei, Jan. 15 (CNA) Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) said Thursday it is "speeding up" its capacity expansion in the United States to satisfy client needs as it reported a record high in net profit in 2025 due to the artificial intelligence development boom.

During the question and answer session of its investor conference, TSMC Chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said the company has had to speed up its plans in the U.S., including pushing up the opening date of its phase 2 semiconductor fab in Arizona.

The issue was being closely watched after multiple foreign media outlets recently reported that Taiwan has negotiated the lowering of the basic U.S. tariff on its goods from 20 percent to 15 percent in exchange for TSMC expanding its semiconductor capacity in the U.S.

In a statement issued before its investor conference Thursday, the world's largest contract chipmaker posted a net profit of NT$1.72 trillion (US$54.43 billion) in 2025, up 46.4 percent from a year earlier.

It had earnings per share of NT$66.25, compared with NT$45.25 in 2024.

The record net profit came after TSMC generated a new high of NT$3.81 trillion in consolidated sales in 2025, up 31.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the statement.

For all of 2025, TSMC's gross margin -- the difference between revenue and cost of goods sold -- rose 3.8 percentage points from a year earlier to 59.9 percent, the company said.

In the fourth quarter alone, TSMC benefited from strong demand for high performance computing devices, smartphones and the Internet of the Things (IoT) to rake in a new high of NT$505.74 billion in net profit, up 35.0 percent from a year earlier and up 11.8 percent from a quarter earlier.

TSMC's fourth quarter EPS stood at NT$19.50, compared with NT$11.45 a year earlier and NT$17.44 a quarter earlier.

The chipmaker generated a record quarterly high for consolidated sales at US$33.73 billion, or NT$1.05 trillion, in the October-December period, up 5.7 percent from a quarter earlier, beating the company's previous estimate of between US$32.2 billion and US$33.4 billion.

TSMC said that due to an improvement in cost controls, a favorable foreign exchange rate and an increase in capacity utilization, its fourth quarter gross margin rose 2.8 percentage points from a quarter earlier to 62.3 percent, better than the estimate of 59-61 percent.

TSMC said its 3-nanometer process, one of its most advanced processes, accounted for 28 percent of total sales in the fourth quarter, while the 5nm and 7nm processes represented 35 percent and 14 percent, respectively.

Overall, advanced processes -- which command higher profit margins -- continued to drive sales, accounting for 77 percent of TSMC's total revenue during the period.