Why Is TSM Stock Rising Premarket?

• The latest performance shows steady demand for advanced chips, which power data centers and AI applications.
• Taiwan’s TSMC is the world’s largest contract chipmaker and a key vendor for Apple and Nvidia.
• Stocktwits sentiment for TSMC remained ‘bearish.’

Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. rose 0.6% in early premarket trading on Monday after the contract chipmaker’s monthly sales update showed continued robust demand for AI and chips.

Revenue in July rose 45% to NT$467.58 billion ($14.5 billion). Analysts on average are estimating a 46.8% increase in sales for the current quarter, Q3.

Surging Demand For AI Chips

The latest performance shows steady demand for advanced chips, which power data centers and other systems that power AI applications, smartphones and automobiles. 

TSMC makes cutting-edge semiconductors for the likes of Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices. The biggest buyers of those chips – including cloud companies Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft – have set aside about $800 billion for AI-related investments this year.

Last month, TSMC raised its spending and revenue projections for the year, reflecting confidence in demand for chips powering AI development. 

TSMC now expects its capital expenditure to reach a record level of $60 billion to $64 billion in 2026 and forecasts its full-year sales to grow slightly above 40% in U.S. dollar terms.

TSMC Joint Venture With Sony

Separately, Sony Group and TSMC announced a plan to spend around ‌1 trillion yen ($6.32 billion) to jointly ‌make next-generation microchips used in image sensors, the Nikkei ​business daily said on Monday.

A joint venture owned about 60% by Sony and 40% by TSMC will start commercial production as early ‌as 2029 in ⁠southern Japan's Kumamoto prefecture, the paper said.

TSMC: Retail View, Stock Move

On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment for TSMC remained ‘bearish,’ unchanged from the previous day, with several users posting about the monthly update. 

TSM stock gained nearly 4% last week and is up 39% year to date. In comparison, the semiconductor benchmark iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) has increased nearly 80% over the past year.

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