by Yimou Lee and Sarah Wu
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC on Thursday warned of a drop of up to 5% in first-quarter revenue and announced a reduction in annual investments, the main supplier of Apple expecting to a drop in demand linked to the slowdown in the global economy.
Warning from TSMC, which saw its profits jump in the fourth quarter, underlines the extent of the sharp slowdown in the global technology sector, faced with deteriorating consumer demand caused by high inflation and interest rates and an economic downturn.
TSMC, however, expects a return to growth in the second half of 2023.
“We expect the semiconductor cycle to bottom out in the first half of 2023 and recover in the second half of 2023,” group chief executive CC Wei said, adding that the rebound would be stimulated by the launch of new products such as those incorporating artificial intelligence.
The chipmaker said its capital expenditures in 2023 will decline to a range between $32 billion and $36 billion (€29.7 billion and €33.5 billion), down from $36.3 billion. spent in 2022.
First-quarter revenue is expected to be between $16.7 billion and $17.5 billion, compared to $17.57 billion in the same period a year earlier.
TSMC’s dominant position in the chip market has long shielded the group from any downturn. But further deterioration in the economic backdrop could catch up with it, with the current quarter likely to mark TSMC’s first sales decline in four years.
(Report Yimou Lee and Sarah Wu; Written by Ben Blanchard; French version Dagmarah Mackos, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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