Insatiable AI Demand: TSMC CEO Discloses Global Supply Shortfall to Persist for Several Years
TSMC CEO C.C. Wei stated Thursday at the firm’s annual shareholders' meeting that the world's largest dedicated foundry remains highly confident in its multi-year growth trajectory.
The optimistic outlook is underpinned by robust global appetite for computing power, advanced node semiconductor architectures, and the structural secular boom in artificial intelligence.
Deep Customer Conviction in the AI Horizon
Wei noted that while the company continues to monitor the operational impact of rising raw material and component costs, TSMC’s client base and downstream end-users—particularly hyperscale cloud service providers—maintain an exceptionally bullish outlook on the artificial intelligence ecosystem.
Wei stated: "We continue to observe a structural acceleration in the adoption of AI models across consumer, enterprise, and sovereign AI applications... This secular trend is driving an aggressive demand profile for enhanced computing performance, which in turn underpins robust demand for advanced semiconductor silicon."
Wei emphasized that TSMC remains highly confident in the long-term AI megatrend, noting that semiconductor demand is supported by strong fundamental pillars.
Anchored by its technology differentiation and a highly diversified customer base, the firm reiterated its strong conviction in its full-year guidance, expecting dollar-denominated revenue growth to comfortably clear 30% this year.
Wei pointed out that TSMC’s total wafer shipments reached 15 million pieces in 2025, with advanced process nodes contributing a commanding 74% of total wafer revenue.
However, despite the boiling demand backdrop, TSMC has no intention of adopting aggressive, short-term pricing strategies similar to those seen in the highly cyclical memory chip sector. Instead, the company remains strictly committed to driving long-term, sustainable growth.
Wei added that while TSMC is working aggressively to satisfy its backlog, the firm’s global chip supply will remain structurally incapable of fully matching AI-driven demand over the next several years.
Furthermore, Wei indicated that attempting to completely satisfy the deployment needs of US-based clients exclusively through domestic US manufacturing operations "would require an exceptionally long period of time," though he refrained from detailing a specific operational timeframe.
Robotics and Autonomous Driving Positioned as Next-Leg Growth Engines
TSMC has delivered a blockbuster equity performance over the past year. The firm's share price skyrocketed from NT$950 on June 3 of last year to close at NT$2,425 this past Wednesday, capturing a massive 12-month advance of over 155%.
"Our employee profit-sharing allocations expanded by roughly 30% from 2023 to 2024, and logged an additional 30% expansion from 2024 to 2025," Wei noted. "We are highly confident that we will deliver another 30% growth increment in 2026."
"We believe we provide highly competitive compensation packages for our workforce," Wei said, adding that there is no structural ceiling on the expansion of employee profit-sharing pools and that these figures are poised to scale further in tandem with corporate performance.
Looking ahead, Wei identified autonomous vehicles and the robotics industry as long-term secular growth engines for TSMC’s core silicon business, adding that the foundry will aggressively position its manufacturing ecosystem to ensure the success of the global robotics rollout.