Taiwan's TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, has logged a forecast-beating 60% leap in quarterly profit, though its outlook has been complicated by US President Donald Trump's unpredictable trade policies.
Executives said, however, that while they understood there were risks from US tariffs, the company has not seen any change in customer behaviour because of levies and expected its business to be supported by robust artificial intelligence demand.
It maintained its full-year outlooks for both revenue and capital spending.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co said net profit for January-March climbed to T$361.6 billion ($11.1 billion), its fourth quarter of double-digit growth in a row.
That was ahead of a T$354.6 billion LSEG SmartEstimate drawn from 18 analysts.
Chief Financial Officer Wendell Huang said capital expenditure for this year was expected to be between $38 billion and $42 billion.
For the second-quarter, it expects revenue of $28.4-$29.2 billion, outpacing $20.82 billion for the same period a year earlier.
In a sign that US controls on chip exports to China have had their desired effect, TSMC said revenue from China dropped to 7% of its total sales compared to 9% a year earlier, while North America generated 77%, up from 69%.
Trump's trade policies and threats to put tariffs on semiconductors have created much uncertainty for the global chip industry and TSMC, whose customers include Apple and Nvidia.
TSMC announced plans for a $100 billion US investment with Trump at the White House last month, on top of $65 billion pledged for three plants in the state of Arizona, one of which is up and running.
Those plans are central to the US chip industry and bringing more of its production to US soil would solve a major supply chain risk for customers that also include Qualcomm and Advanced Micro Devices.
Like many other chip stocks TSMC's shares have fallen this year, dropping 20% given uncertainty about US trade and tariff policies.
Investor jitters about spending on AI infrastructure and competitive threats such as Chinese startup DeepSeek's launch of cheaper AI models have also sapped sentiment.
