Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) reported record quarterly net profit and revenue on Thursday, as the world's largest contract chipmaker benefited from strong sales of smartphones from clients such as Apple Inc.
As the maker of chips that analysts say power Apple's popular iPhone 6, TSMC earned T$79.99 billion ($2.52 billion) in net profit in October-December, compared with the T$76.46 billion mean estimate of 21 analysts polled by Reuters.
The result near doubles the T$44.81 billion reported in the same three months of last year, and is slightly more than the T$76.34 billion of July-September.
Demand for increasingly feature-rich gadgets has led to a burst in growth for companies such as TSMC and local peer United Microelectronics Corp, whose chips power features from fingerprint sensors to fourth-generation (4G) LTE receivers.
In the fourth quarter, TSMC's profit margin decreased to 35.9 percent from 40.4 percent in the third quarter on T$222.5 billion in October-December revenue.
Shares of TSMC closed up 1.15 percent ahead of the earnings release, versus a 0.16 percent fall in the overall TAIEX index.
On the heels of 2014's bumper year, company-watchers are now divided about whether Apple will select TSMC to produce chips for its next-generation smartphones. Apple's products still command premium prices though growth in tech gadget sales is slowing world-wide.
"Everyone is guessing wildly about TSMC's place in the Apple universe," said Fubon Securities analyst Carlos Peng. "The prevailing wisdom is that TSMC is losing share."
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, TSMC's main competitor for Apple custom, has previously said it is seeing increased demand for chips made with 14 nanometre technology, the likes of which could power the successor to the iPhone 6.
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