A bunch of their current business comes from crypto-mining, so this also has some crypto exposure. The stocks have done well over the last few years, and I believe this is mostly from the crypto boom than the AI boom
According to Nic Carter, this isn’t true:
Ultimately, Bitcoin miners represent a small fraction of TSMC revenue — around 1% according to Bernstein. The notion of a marginal, Tier II industry being responsible for chip shortages is fanciful. The more immediate cause is the supply inelasticity of foundry space (due to gargantuan fixed costs) and the massive surge of demand for electronics due to a global lockdown and new technologies coming online.
But the global chip shortage means semiconductor foundries like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. are already scrambling to fill other orders. They are also cautious about adding new capacity given how finicky crypto demand has proven to be. Bernstein estimates that crypto will only contribute about 1% TSMC’s revenue this year, versus around 10% in the first half of 2018 during the last crypto boom.
Looking at the WSJ source, looks like it’s actually arguing that Bitcoin mining wasn’t a big cause of the global chip shortage. And that 1% was a low, and that it had previously been 10%.
Still less than I’d expected, but 10% seems plausibly enough to significantly boost profits?
According to Nic Carter, this isn’t true:
Source
Looking at the WSJ source, looks like it’s actually arguing that Bitcoin mining wasn’t a big cause of the global chip shortage. And that 1% was a low, and that it had previously been 10%.
Still less than I’d expected, but 10% seems plausibly enough to significantly boost profits?