CITIC International: TSMC's financial report performance last year was strong, maintaining an "Outperform" rating

CMB International's research report points out that Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM.US) is expected to have strong financial performance in 2025, with revenue reaching $122 billion, a year-on-year increase of 35.9%, and a gross margin of 59.9%. Looking ahead, the company's management expects revenue in the first quarter of this year to be between $34.6 billion and $35.8 billion, with a gross margin of 63% to 65%, and has raised the revenue growth forecast for 2026 to about 30%, higher than its growth outlook of 14% for the "Foundry 2.0" industry.

CMB International also noted that importantly, Taiwan Semiconductor has raised its capital expenditure for this year to between $52 billion and $56 billion; the firm believes this is a strategic move aimed at addressing customer AI demand, proactively deploying leading process and advanced packaging capacity to seize this multi-year expansion cycle.

CMB International also believes that the aforementioned measures are a positive signal for beneficiaries in the AI supply chain, especially semiconductor equipment manufacturers; thus, it maintains the stock's "outperform" rating