Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. said it would raise its capital spending budget and revenue growth forecast for 2021, a sign of confidence from the world’s biggest contract chip maker that soaring global demand for semiconductors will persist.
The chip maker said Thursday while reporting its quarterly earnings that it would raise its capital expenditures to $30 billion this year, from an earlier range of $25 billion to $28 billion announced in January. The Hsinchu, Taiwan-based company also raised its revenue growth forecast to 20% for the year, from an earlier estimate of 15% growth.
The chip maker’s heftier investment budget comes as its global competitors also move to beef up production capacity amid a global chip shortage that TSMC expects to extend into 2022.
TSMC’s upward revision in capital spending for 2021 effectively pulls forward some of the planned investment the semiconductor giant had announced earlier this month, when it announced a record spending spree of $100 billion over the next three years to build out more of its production capacity.
“Our customers are currently facing challenges from the industrywide semiconductor capacity shortage,” said TSMC’s chief executive C.C. Wei. Mr. Wei blamed the shortage on what he thinks will be a permanent increase in longer-term demand for chips, as well as shorter-term imbalances in the supply chain.
