Chip Earnings Say the AI Spending Boom Isn’t Slowing Down
When the world’s most important chip companies post blockbuster earnings, pay attention. In a move signaling accelerating AI spending, TSMCTSM and ASMLASML just raised their sales forecasts. The former firm even posted record profits, leading CEO C.C. Wei to confirm AI demand is “extremely robust,” easing bubble fears.
- With profits up 58% from last year, Wei explained that the shift from generative AI to agentic AI is lifting token consumption, pushing demand for advanced chips to new highs.
- Amid the boom, ASML’s CEO Christophe Fouquet noted that demand for chips is outpacing supply — and expects that capacity gap to persist for the foreseeable future.
Follow the chips: To counter the squeeze, cloud providers are racing to commit $600B+ to data centers this year. That led TSMC to target the upper end of its $56B spending plan, confident that “customers and customers of customers” aren’t backing down. As companies lock in multi-year capacity agreements to guarantee supply, the pecking order is set: you either secure your spot early or wait in line. Whether that’s visionary planning or an expensive game of musical chairs depends on whom you ask.