By Wen-Yee Lee and Ben Blanchard
TAIPEI, July 16 (Reuters) - TSMC, the world's largest manufacturer of advanced AI chips, is expected to notch a fifth consecutive quarter of record earnings on Thursday, with a 59% surge in net profit for April-June, driven by booming global demand for AI infrastructure.
Analysts said demand for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co's (TSMC) 3-nanometre and 2-nanometre process technologies for AI chips, as well as for its advanced chip packaging technology, CoWoS, remains
strong.
That has catapulted Asia's most valuable company, a key supplier to Nvidia and Apple, to new heights. Its market capitalisation is now nearly double that of South Korean rival Samsung Electronics at around $1.95 trillion.
TSMC is expected to report net profit of T$632.6 billion ($19.65 billion) for the second quarter, according to an LSEG SmartEstimate compiled from 18 analysts. SmartEstimates place greater weight on forecasts from analysts who are more consistently accurate.
An earnings call at which it will provide third-quarter and updated full-year guidance is scheduled for 0600 GMT.
Any result above T$572.5 billion would mark the company's highest-ever quarterly net income and its 10th consecutive quarter of profit growth.
On Monday, the company announced a 36% rise in second-quarter revenue, ahead of market forecasts and a record high.
Analysts broadly expect TSMC to raise its full-year revenue growth outlook and will be watching whether it also increases capital spending, a key indicator of management's confidence in the durability of AI demand.
On its last earnings call in April, the company said 2026 capital expenditure would be at the high end of its earlier guidance of $52 billion to $56 billion.
TSMC is investing $165 billion to build chip factories in the U.S. state of Arizona.
TSMC's Taipei-listed shares have gained 57.4% so far this year, in line with the broader market.
($1 = 32.1880 Taiwan dollars)
(Reporting by Wen-Yee Lee; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
