chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSM) on Thursday beat targets for third-quarter sales and earnings and guided higher for current-quarter sales.
“The strength of our third-quarter revenue was driven mainly by major mobile product launches and a generally healthy demand environment, including cryptocurrency mining,” Taiwan Semiconductor Chief Financial Officer Lora Ho said in a news release. “We expect our fourth-quarter business will continue to be supported by the major mobile product launches, while our customers continue their inventory management.”
Taiwan Semiconductor makes chips for Apple‘s (AAPL) iPhone and other smartphones.
Taiwan Semiconductor’s U.S. shares fell 1% to close at 41.07 on the stock market today. On Wednesday, they rose 0.6% to 41.50, after earlier hitting an all-time high of 41.72.
For the fourth quarter, Taiwan Semiconductor expects revenue of $9.1 billion to $9.2 billion, topping consensus views of $8.92 billion.
It expects a gross profit margin of 48% to 50%, compared with 49.9% in the third quarter.
Taiwan Semiconductor is the world’s largest producer of made-to-order chips.