TSMC recently announced revenue data for January 2026. The consolidated revenue in a single month reached NT$401.26 billion, approximately US$12.763 billion, an increase of 19.8% from December 2025 and a 36.8% increase from January 2025. Supported by the outstanding revenue performance, the company's board of directors approved a 2026 capital expenditure plan totaling approximately US$44.962 billion to expand equipment and upgrade existing semiconductor production facilities. This figure set a new high for TSMC's single-year capital expenditure.
The industry generally believes that this large investment reflects the boom in generative artificial intelligence and the continued strong demand from mobile terminal customers such as smartphones, which is sufficient to support TSMC's continuous increase in capital expenditures every year. According to the previous plan, the company originally planned to invest approximately US$17.141 billion, US$15.247 billion, US$20.657 billion, and US$14.981 billion in four quarters in 2025. However, in actual implementation, a considerable part of the budget was postponed to 2026, making the actual capital expenditure in 2025 lower than the original total, while the expenditure target in 2026 was pushed to the highest level in history.
In terms of specific production capacity layout, TSMC plans to expand at a scale of "hundreds of thousands of wafers per month", covering mature processes, current mainstream processes, and next-generation advanced process nodes. The company emphasizes that the importance of mature process capacity is no less important than the maintenance of current nodes and the advancement of advanced nodes, because many industries, including automobiles, still rely heavily on TSMC's supply capabilities in mature processes and advanced packaging to meet diverse market demands.
According to the current plan, about 70% to 80% of the new $45 billion budget will be invested in the construction of advanced process node production capacity, about 10% to 20% will be used to expand advanced packaging and mask manufacturing capabilities, and the remaining about 10% will be used to expand the field of "special technologies", which is expected to cover emerging technology directions such as silicon photonics. This capital allocation structure shows that while TSMC continues to strengthen its competitiveness in cutting-edge processes, it is also increasing its long-term technology bets on high-speed interconnection and optoelectronic integration.
In addition to its production expansion plan, TSMC also released key signals at the management and technical team levels. According to the company's press release, Lin S.S., the former senior director of R&D, was promoted to vice president. He was previously responsible for the research and development of TSMC's 1-nanometer technology. This series of processes was classified by the company into the A10 level naming system of the "Ami Era". This promotion is seen as the company's endorsement of the smooth advancement of the A10 technology family (including A18, A16 and other nodes). It also means that core researchers responsible for cutting-edge processes will have a greater voice within the company to accelerate the mass production of related technologies.