Chipmaker TSMC (NYSE:TSM) notched a new quarterly sales record at the end of 2021 boosted by continued demand from top clients including Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) for semiconductors.
The Taiwanese foundry, which manufacturers chips for other companies, reported December revenue of 155.38 billion new Taiwan dollars (about $5.6 billion U.S.) — a record number for a single month, and up 4.8% from November.
For the fourth quarter, revenue totaled 438.18 billion new Taiwan dollars, the sixth straight quarterly sales record TSMC has recorded.
Demand for semiconductors, which are key for everything from smartphones to cars, continues to rise even as a shortage of chips has hit several industries.
Last year, the Nikkei reported that TSMC was planning to hike prices amid strong demand and lack of supply.
Delivery times for chips increased by six days to about 25.8 weeks in December compared with November, according to research by Susquehanna Financial Group. Such a lag marks the longest wait time since the firm began tracking the data in 2017.
TSMC will grow at a faster pace this year "underpinned by price hikes, the ongoing industry upgrade cycle in HPC/5G, and strong demand for cryptocurrency," Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a note earlier this month. The brokerage predicted 2022 sales will grow 26% from a year earlier and lifted its target price for the chipmaker to N$1,035 from NT$1,028
TSM shares added $1.36, or 1.1%, to $124.90.
