The main indicators of TSMC’s financial statements boil down to the fact that in the first quarter of 2021, the company received revenue of $ 12.92 billion, which is 1.9% more than in the previous quarter and 25% more than a year earlier. 52.4% of that amount is gross profit, which is down 1.6% quarter-on-quarter and up 0.6% year-on-year.
TSMC shipped 3.36 million silicon chips per quarter (in terms of 300mm chips because even TSMC has some of its production in 200mm). That’s about 1.12 million chips per month, or 8% more than the 2020 average.
TSMC production and revenue has increased in the first quarter
TSMC hit a record production level this quarter, roughly 50% above its recent low in Q1 2019 (back then, the decline was driven by low smartphone demand and seasonality). Over the past 5 years, the average production of TSMC has been about 2.5-2.7 million chips per quarter. Recently alone, TSMC has been producing more than 3 million chips per quarter, which indicates a significant increase in demand. Also contributing is TSMC’s newest Fab 18 plant, which began risky 5nm production in Q2 2019 and is capable of printing 1-1.2 million 300mm silicon chips per year when fully loaded.
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Also in the TSMC report contains information on income by platform. The two main markets are smartphones (45% of revenue) and high-performance chips (35% of revenue). Together they have been steadily forming about 80% of TSMC’s total revenues for more than a year. The remaining 20% is accounted for by the Internet of Things (9%), automotive electronics (4%) and others (7%).
Finally, the company announced that it plans to spend $ 100 billion over the next three years on the development of advanced facilities, with up to $ 28 billion of this amount in 2021 ($ 12 billion of which will go to the construction of an American plant in Arizona). For comparison, the construction of TSMC Fab 15, which currently produces 7nm chips on 300mm silicon chips, cost $ 9.3 billion, and the plant’s productivity is about 100,000 chips per month.
