TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, is taking the unusual step of physically verifying that the datacenters its customers plan to use will be ready to house the chips it produces. The move underscores how the AI boom is straining not just semiconductor fabrication but the entire infrastructure stack needed to deploy advanced processors.
"We put every possibility we can, talking about the cloud service providers, capex, datacenter build-out, financial, power supply, and also other component supply, all into our consideration," Wei told analysts on the earnings call. He said that after assessing these factors, TSMC still believes demand exceeds supply and the company is "working very hard to narrow the gap."
The company expects capital expenditure of $60 billion to $64 billion this year, and total spending from 2026 through 2028 is projected to exceed the total for the 2023-2025 period as TSMC expands capacity for customers. Wei said TSMC is planning roughly 20 leading-edge manufacturing and advanced-packaging facilities in Taiwan and overseas over the next several years.
For the third quarter ended September 30, 2026, TSMC reported revenue of $46.72 billion, a 41.2 percent increase year-over-year. The company expects fourth-quarter revenue of $52.3 billion to $54.3 billion, representing roughly 58 percent growth at the midpoint.
Wei noted that demand for agentic workloads and networking chips is adding to the need for silicon, and reiterated that "semiconductors will remain essential in the AI mega trend."
He also confirmed that preparations for TSMC's next-generation A14 process, marketed as 1.4 nm, are underway. Risk production is scheduled for 2027, with volume production expected in 2028, and Wei predicted A14 would become a bigger business than the current 2 nm generation.
However, when asked whether tightness in wafer supply would be greater next year than this year, Wei declined to give a direct answer, saying only that "the demand is extremely robust and getting higher and higher."
An analyst on the call questioned whether power shortages, datacenter construction delays, advanced-packaging constraints, or limited supplies of high-bandwidth memory could hold back projected growth. Wei responded that TSMC factors all these constraints into its capacity planning, but offered no detailed breakdown of which risks it considers most significant.