Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM) may be one of the most important companies to the health of the AI infrastructure build-out. Its foundries churn out the logic chips designed by nearly every one of the major players in the space, and it just made an announcement that supports the idea that we’re still in the early innings of the AI build-out. During its second-quarter earnings call, it announced it would make an additional $100 billion investment in expanding its chipmaking facilities in Arizona. If Taiwan Semiconductor suspected that the AI build-out was nearing completion, it wouldn’t be increasing its production capacity.
Given its leading position in a still-growing space, I think Taiwan Semiconductor is one of the lowest-risk, highest-potential-reward options in the market, and it still looks like a phenomenal investment now, even after rising over 30% so far this year.
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AI computing power starts with Taiwan Semiconductor
Taiwan Semiconductor is the world’s leading third-party chip foundry, which means it takes chip designs from its clients and manufactures them on their behalf. Its customers include tech giants Nvidia, AMD, Apple, Broadcom, and Tesla. This puts TSMC in a strong position, as it often manufactures chips for rivals such as Nvidia and AMD, allowing it to profit regardless of which of those customers is winning in the marketplace. Taiwan Semiconductor accounts for nearly three-quarters of all semiconductor industry revenue in the world, according to research by The Motley Fool. During the quarter, 66% of its revenue came from high-performance computing, showcasing that AI is eating up a lot of Taiwan Semiconductor’s production capacity, and explaining its plan to expand its Arizona foundries.
Taiwan Semiconductor is one of the top ways to invest in the AI arms race, and it’s honestly not as expensive as you might guess, considering its solid growth rate. (Revenue grew by 34% in U.S. dollars during Q2.) At 24 times forward earnings, Taiwan Semiconductor trades at only a small premium to the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC), which averages 21.7 times forward earnings.
Few companies have as much guaranteed success as Taiwan Semiconductor does as long as spending on AI computing power remains robust. All signs point to that assumption remaining correct over the next few years, which gives me confidence that Taiwan Semiconductor will be a market-crushing stock over that period, making it a no-brainer buy today.
