By Adam Clark

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing reported strong December sales on Friday, offering another sign of strong demand for chips to power artificial-intelligence technology.

Taiwan Semiconductor, or TSMC, reported December revenue of 278.16 billion New Taiwan dollars, or $8.44 billion. That was up 58% from the same month a year before.

The December sales figure brought TMSC's December-quarter revenue to 868.5 billion New Taiwan dollars or $26.35 billion, based on its monthly figures. That was ahead of the 854 billion New Taiwan dollars forecast by a FactSet poll of analysts.

The company didn't give any detailed commentary alongside the monthly sales figure but had previously said it expected quarterly revenue of $26.1 billion to $26.9 billion.

TSMC's annual revenue for 2024 totaled 2.9 trillion New Taiwan dollars, up 34% from 2023.

While TSMC makes a variety of chips, the growth is likely to reflect strong demand for hardware to power AI systems. TSMC dominates the market for manufacturing high-end chips. It is the main supplier for chips for Nvidia, which leads the market for semiconductors used for AI applications.

The company also makes the core processors inside Apple iPhones, Qualcomm mobile chipsets, and processors made by Advanced Micro Devices.

TSMC could issue financial guidance for 20%-25% sales growth for 2025 in U.S. dollar terms, driven by continued global investment in AI infrastructure, Deutsche Bank analyst Robert Sanders wrote in a recent research note.

TSMC's American depositary receipts were up 1.2% in premarket trading.

Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com

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January 10, 2025 08:23 ET (13:23 GMT)

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