TSMC's fourth-quarter net profit was US$6 billion, with 5nm revenue accounting for more than 20%

At noon on January 13, chip foundry giant TSMC released its fourth-quarter financial report for fiscal year 2021 ending December 31. The financial report shows that TSMC's consolidated revenue in the fourth quarter was 438.189 billion yuan (New Taiwan dollars, the same below) (approximately US$15.846 billion), an increase of 21.2% from 361.533 billion yuan in the same period last year, setting a record for the sixth consecutive quarter; net profit was 166.232 billion yuan (approximately US$6.011 billion), an increase of 16.4% from 142.766 billion yuan in the same period last year.

In the financial report, TSMC also disclosed that their gross profit margin in the fourth quarter of last year was 52.7%, operating profit margin was 41.7%, and net profit margin was 37.9%, all lower than the same period last year, but slightly better than the previous quarter.

In the third quarter financial report released on October 14 last year, TSMC management expected fourth quarter revenue of US$15.4-15.7 billion and gross profit margin of 51%-53%. In the end, their revenue exceeded the upper limit of expectations, and the gross profit margin also met expectations, close to the upper limit of expectations.

Among them, shipments of 5-nanometer process wafers accounted for 23% of total wafer revenue; shipments of 7-nanometer process wafers accounted for 27% of total wafer revenue; and advanced process (7-nanometer and more advanced process) wafers accounted for 50% of total wafer revenue.