TSMC posted NT$514.81 billion (roughly $16.35 billion) in consolidated revenue for August 2026, up 53.3% from a year earlier and 10.1% above July. The figure, reported on September 10, extends the strong growth streak of the world’s largest contract chipmaker as demand for high-performance computing and artificial intelligence keeps pressure on its most advanced technologies.
TSMC’s results in 20 seconds
- TSMC billed NT$514.81 billion in August, up 53.3% year over year.
- Versus July, revenue grew 10.1%.
- January-August revenue totals NT$3.387 trillion.
- High-performance computing made up 66% of second-quarter revenue.
- TSMC recently raised its 2026 capex guidance to $60-64 billion.
One important clarification about some coverage published this September 10: this isn’t September revenue — it’s August 2026 revenue. TSMC publishes its monthly figures the following month and is scheduled to report September’s numbers on October 8.
August’s jump is striking even within a year that had already been showing strong growth. TSMC had posted NT$467.58 billion in July, compared with NT$323.17 billion in July 2025. In August of last year, the figure had been NT$335.77 billion.
| Period | Revenue | Change |
|---|---|---|
| August 2025 | NT$335.77B | — |
| July 2026 | NT$467.58B | — |
| August 2026 | NT$514.81B | +53.3% YoY |
| August vs. July | — | +10.1% |
| January-August 2026 | NT$3.387T | +39.3% YoY |
The year-to-date total is another indicator of how fast the business has been moving. TSMC had brought in NT$2.872 trillion between January and July, up 37% from the same period in 2025. Adding August brings the figure to roughly NT$3.387 trillion, pushing cumulative growth to 39.3%.
AI is reshaping the weight of TSMC’s business
The monthly report doesn’t break revenue down by customer, technology, or application. To understand what’s behind the growth, you have to look at the company’s latest quarterly results.
In the second quarter of 2026, the High-Performance Computing (HPC) platform accounted for 66% of TSMC’s revenue and grew 20% from the prior quarter.
Smartphones contributed 22%, the Internet of Things (IoT) 5%, automotive 4%, digital consumer electronics 1%, and other categories 2%.
| Platform | Share of Q2 2026 revenue | Quarterly change |
|---|---|---|
| HPC | 66% | +20% |
| Smartphones | 22% | -4% |
| IoT | 5% | +4% |
| Automotive | 4% | +15% |
| Consumer electronics | 1% | +5% |
| Other | 2% | +5% |
HPC isn’t synonymous with artificial intelligence alone. The category includes other high-performance computing applications, so it wouldn’t be accurate to automatically attribute 66% of TSMC’s revenue to AI.
Even so, the company itself has been identifying AI as one of the main components of the structural demand it’s seeing, and it has explicitly cited the emergence of agentic AI when justifying its higher investment plans.
The phenomenon is also visible in the manufacturing technologies in use.
In the second quarter, processes at 7 nanometers or below accounted for 77% of wafer revenue. 5nm contributed 33%, 3nm another 30%, and 7nm 11%.
On top of that, the 2nm node already generated 3% of wafer revenue during the quarter, as its production continues ramping up.
This concentration in advanced nodes matters because TSMC manufactures chips for some of the companies ramping up spending on AI accelerators, servers, and devices. But the monthly August figure doesn’t allow for determining how much of the growth comes from any specific customer or product.
TSMC raises capex to $64 billion
The flip side of demand is the need to add capacity.
TSMC raised its 2026 capital expenditure budget in July to a range of $60 billion to $64 billion, after revising its customers’ expected demand upward. That follows the same trend seen as AI demand strains Taiwan’s chip factories and pushes prices higher across the island’s foundries this year.
How that money is allocated shows where the company is concentrating its resources.
The company expects to devote roughly 70% to 80% of the budget to advanced manufacturing technologies. About 10% will go to specialty technologies, and 10% to 20% will go toward advanced packaging, testing, mask-making, and other investments.
Packaging has become a critical part of the processors used in AI data centers. Manufacturing the most advanced chips isn’t enough on its own: different components, high-bandwidth memory, and compute dies need to be integrated through packaging technologies capable of handling enormous amounts of data and power.
TSMC has acknowledged strong demand pressure on these capabilities. That doesn’t mean, however, that the company is generally unable to produce all the chips being requested. The constraints affect specific processes and technologies differently and shift as new capacity comes online.
The company is also accelerating 2nm production. That ramp-up carries an upfront cost to profitability: TSMC estimated in July that the node’s rapid growth could reduce its gross margin by 3 to 4 percentage points during the second half of 2026.
Even so, second-quarter gross margin reached 67.7%, 1.5 percentage points higher than the previous quarter. The company attributed the improvement mainly to cost reductions and slightly higher capacity utilization, partially offset by the effect of its overseas fabs.
August outpaces 2026’s cumulative growth rate
TSMC’s monthly revenue has shown significant swings throughout the year, so August’s 53.3% shouldn’t automatically be extrapolated to the full year.
The data published so far shows:
| 2026 month | Revenue (NT$M) | Year-over-year change |
|---|---|---|
| January | 401,255 | +36.8% |
| February | 317,657 | +22.2% |
| March | 415,191 | +45.2% |
| April | 410,726 | +17.5% |
| May | 416,975 | +30.1% |
| June | 442,680 | +67.9% |
| July | 467,580 | +44.7% |
| August | 514,810 | +53.3% |
June remains, for now, the month with the highest year-over-year growth, at 67.9%, while August sets a new monthly revenue high within 2026 based on the figures reported to date.
The sequence also shows there’s no linear progression. April grew 17.5% year over year, and two months later June jumped 67.9%. Factors such as delivery schedules, product mix, and comparisons with the prior year can produce large differences from month to month.
The next, more complete reference point will come with third-quarter results. Until then, August’s figures offer a clear signal about the volume TSMC is handling, but they don’t replace the quarterly breakdown of technologies, platforms, margins, and guidance.
The distinction also matters when interpreting the claim that TSMC “can’t keep up with demand.” The company has acknowledged very strong demand and constraints in certain capabilities, but at the same time maintains that it’s working ahead of schedule with its equipment suppliers and doesn’t foresee bottlenecks that would prevent it from executing its capacity expansion plans.
August’s NT$514.81 billion, then, points to something more concrete: TSMC keeps growing revenue at high speed while committing up to $64 billion this year to expanding and modernizing its infrastructure. September’s figures, which will show whether this pace continues, are due on October 8, 2026.
