TSMC announces fourth quarter financial report: net profit after tax is NT$345.344 billion, up year-on-year

According to the Economic Daily, TSMC announced its fourth-quarter financial report, with cumulative consolidated revenue of NT$1,069.985 billion (the same below) in the first four quarters, a year-on-year growth of 3.73%; cumulative net profit after tax was NT$345.344 billion, a year-on-year growth of 32.28%, and cumulative net profit after tax per share was NT$13.32. Revenue has increased for three consecutive quarters, setting a record high.

TSMC's 5nm process will officially enter mass production in the second quarter. According to equipment manufacturers, TSMC's 5nm orders for the second half of the year have been fully filled, including Apple's new generation A14 application processor, Huawei HiSilicon's new 5G specification Kirin mobile phone chip, Qualcomm's 5G modem chip X60 and the new generation Snapdragon 875 mobile phone chip.

Regarding reports by U.S. media that the United States plans to reduce the limit on U.S. technology content from 25% to 10%, thereby further restricting Huawei's chip supply, Taiwanese media believe that the issue of expanding restrictions may disappear from the market for a while and will have no impact on TSMC for the time being.

Taiwan's IC design companies revealed that TSMC's short-term orders have not loosened, and even if one customer reduces the order, other customers will make up for it. Before there is a clear end-customer order reduction, there will be no change in the chip supplier's orders. This includes Huawei HiSilicon. Taiwan semiconductor companies familiar with Huawei and HiSilicon systems revealed that Huawei's senior management decided not to reduce any orders and continue to increase chip inventory levels. Therefore, at least in the first quarter, Huawei is unlikely to cut orders.