Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker, has signalled strong confidence in its near-term growth trajectory. According to Reuters, its chief executive cited sustained, broadening customer enthusiasm for artificial intelligence as the primary driver. Speaking at the company's annual shareholders' meeting in Hsinchu, Taiwan, CEO C.C. Wei told attendees that despite mounting cost pressures across the supply chain, demand for advanced semiconductors shows no signs of slowing down.
The remarks come as the global AI infrastructure buildout accelerates, with hyperscalers, enterprise software firms, and sovereign governments alike racing to secure the compute capacity required to train and deploy increasingly powerful AI models.
AI Adoption Is Broadening
Wei confirmed that customer sentiment around AI spending remains firmly positive, even as macroeconomic uncertainty and rising component costs have introduced new variables into procurement planning. The company is actively monitoring those cost dynamics, but the underlying demand signal from its customer base remains steady.
"We continue to see increasing adoption of AI models across consumer, enterprise and sovereign AI applications," Wei said, as reported by Reuters. The chipmaker is working "very hard" to satisfy demand, he added, but acknowledged the practical ceiling on how much it can produce in any given period, a supply constraint that has become a defining feature of the AI era.
The demand is being driven by the insatiable appetite for compute. Every new AI model generation requires more chips, more interconnect bandwidth, and more advanced fabrication nodes, and TSMC sits squarely at the centre of that supply chain. Its customers include Nvidia and Apple, two companies whose growth stories are inextricably linked to TSMC's production capacity.
On the question of pricing power, Wei was candid. Asked whether TSMC would raise prices for its customers, he indicated the company wants to do so but intends to proceed carefully. Unlike memory chip manufacturers who can move prices sharply in response to supply-demand imbalances, TSMC's model is built around long-term partnerships. "We don't want to suddenly raise prices like memory companies do," Wei said. "That's not sustainable. TSMC is focused on long-term, sustainable operations."
US Chip Independence Remains a Long-Term Goal
TSMC's $165 billion investment in new fabrication facilities in Arizona remains one of the most consequential bets in the global semiconductor industry. Wei offered a measure of reassurance to investors on the US buildout, noting that the company's two existing parcels of land in Arizona should be sufficient to accommodate its expansion plans for the next decade.
However, he tempered expectations around the pace at which American customers' chip needs can be met through domestic production. It will take a "very long time" to fully satisfy US demand with US-based manufacturing, Wei said. This is a signal to policymakers and industry stakeholders that supply-chain reshoring, while underway, is a generational undertaking rather than a near-term fix.
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