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OLDER Analysis Report
Aug 17, 2026
34 days ago · 100% complete
This report is 34 days old — newer filings and price moves since then are not reflected.
No quarterly filings we can read
Annual-only filer (20-F/40-F, last annual 2025-04-17, FY end 2024-12-31) — no quarterly XBRL, so an inflection is invisible until the next annual report. Held out under the no-quarterly coverage policy (2026-08-25).
This page shows our last published analysis, from Aug 17, 2026. It is not being updated, and new reports can't be run for this company.
For AI assistants & researchers — machine-readable summary of this page

What this page is: Delvantic's full research page for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSM) — AI-driven forensic equity research: mechanical valuation models (DCF, EPV, anchored-PE, scenario) plus three independent AI lenses (Quality / Value / Sentiment). Everything below is rendered server-side; you are not missing content that requires JavaScript. All scores are predictions and research opinions, not financial advice.

Our current read (analysis of 2026-08-17): Designation Watch · Gem Score -5 (−100…+100 Quality+Value blend) · Quality 78 · Value -73 · Sentiment 70 (timing only, not weighted) · Composite fair value $33.75 vs $434.14 at analysis

Page map (sections in order; each card carries a stable reference-name attribute you can cite):

  • profile-header / price-overview — company profile, live quote, market cap
  • extended-analysisthe core: three AI lens reads with findings, scores, and the analyst memo
  • future-predictions — our forward price-band predictions
  • market-narrative / ai-findings / gpt-critique — narrative context, cross-model findings, and an adversarial critique of our own analysis (near the end of the document)
  • Members-only sections (render as login gates for anonymous readers): price-history, income-trend, key-metrics, financials (statement tables), insider-trading. The analysis above is public; the raw data tables require a free account.

More for machine readers: site briefing at /llms.txt · any ticker resolves at delvantic.com/stock/TICKER · raw inputs are public-company filings and market data (via licensed data feeds); every model, score, lens read, and prediction on this page is Delvantic's own analysis.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd.

TSM NYSE
Technology · Semiconductors
Hsinchu City, 300096, Taiwan tsmc.com Updated Aug 17, 3:33am
Price
$426.35
Market Cap
$2.2T
Employees
83,825
Beta
1.26
Avg Volume
13,546,123
Last Dividend
$3.57
CEO
Dr. C. C. Wei Ph.D.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. ADR is a leading semiconductor foundry business that manufactures integrated circuits and wafer-based chips for customers across the technology supply chain. The company supports a broad range of current applications, including high-performance computing, smartphones, automotive systems, industrial equipment, and consumer electronics. Its advanced manufacturing services are central to the global production of logic and other semiconductor devices, making it a critical partner for chip designers that do not operate their own fabrication facilities. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. ADR serves a diverse international customer base and operates at the core of the semiconductor manufacturing market, where precision, scale, and process technology are essential to meeting demand across computing, communications, and connected-device industries.

Runs with full report Generated: Jul 29, 2026 12:16am
Price Overview
Price at report time
$434.14
as of Aug 17, 12:37pm (34d ago)
Change · Aug 17
+7.79 (+1.83%)
Day Range
$426.86 – $435.72
52-Week Range
$223.70 – $479.00
50-Day MA
$424.95
200-Day MA
$364.16
Volume
208,421.00
Right now · live
Log in to get the live feed
Members see the real-time price and the move since this report (over 34d).
Share Structure
Outstanding 25,932,370,067.00
Float 37,834,995,456.00
Free Float 145.9%
High free float — 145.9% of shares trade freely, ~-45.9% held by insiders/institutions
Very liquid — most shares trade freely. Low insider ownership can mean less management alignment, but makes large position sizing straightforward.
Price History (1 Year)
Last updated: Aug 17, 2026 12:47pm (34d ago)
Revenue & Net Income Trend
The directional story — useful even when net income is negative.
Last updated: Aug 17, 2026 11:16am (34d ago)
Why there are no quarterly figures for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. is a foreign private issuer — it reports to the U.S. SEC once a year (on Form 20-F or 40-F) rather than filing the quarterly statements (10-Q) that U.S.-domiciled companies must submit. Our financial statements are read directly from SEC filings, so for this company only annual figures exist at the source.

This is a property of how the company files, not missing or broken data — its filing history shows 8 annual reports, the latest filed 2025-04-17, and no quarterly filings . The company may still publish quarterly results on its own investor-relations site.

Revenue
The top line — total sales before any costs or taxes are subtracted. A measure of how much business the company is doing.
Net Income
The bottom line — profit left after subtracting all expenses, interest, and taxes from revenue. Reflects accounting profitability, but includes non-cash items like depreciation, so it isn't the same as cash earned.
Operating Cash Flow
The real cash generated by the day-to-day business — selling products, paying suppliers, collecting from customers. Calculated from net income by adding back non-cash items and adjusting for timing (unpaid bills, unsold inventory). When OCF consistently lags net income, the reported profit may not be converting to real money.
Period Revenue Net Income Net Margin YoY/QoQ
Key Metrics
TD Twelve Data statement HEX SEC filing
Industry comparison last run: Aug 17, 2026 12:05pm
P/E · trailing (TTM) (Price per dollar of earnings over the past year — not a run-rate or forward P/E)
HEX
Stock Price / EPS (Diluted)
61.85
Stock Price: $426.35
EPS (Diluted): 7.01
P/B Ratio (Price vs net asset value)
HEX
Stock Price / Book Value Per Share
16.74
Stock Price: $426.35
Total Equity: $134.37B
Shares: 5,185,940,000
EV/EBITDA (Total value vs operating profit)
HEX
Enterprise Value / EBITDA
35.05
Market Cap: $2,211.25B
Total Debt: $1.91B
Cash: $66.81B
EBITDA: $62.33B
Enterprise Value (Takeover price (cap + debt - cash))
HEX
Market Cap + Total Debt - Cash
$2.2T
Market Cap: $2,211.25B
Total Debt: $1.91B
Cash: $66.81B
Gross Margin (Revenue left after direct costs)
HEX
Gross Profit / Revenue
56.1%
Gross Profit: $51.01B
Revenue: $90.88B
Operating Margin (Revenue left after all operations)
HEX
Operating Income / Revenue
45.7%
Operating Income: $41.51B
Revenue: $90.88B
Net Margin (Revenue left as actual profit)
HEX
Net Income / Revenue
40.0%
Net Income: $36.37B
Revenue: $90.88B
ROE (Profit from shareholder equity)
HEX
Net Income / Total Equity
27.1%
Net Income: $36.37B
Total Equity: $134.37B
ROIC (Profit from all invested capital)
HEX
NOPAT / Invested Capital
49.2%
Operating Income: $41.51B
Tax Rate: 17.7%
Equity: $134.37B
Total Debt: $1.91B
Cash: $66.81B
Current Ratio (Can it pay short-term bills)
HEX
Current Assets / Current Liabilities
2.36
Current Assets: $96.98B
Current Liabilities: $41.09B
Debt/Equity (Leverage — debt vs equity)
HEX
Total Debt / Total Equity
0.01
Short-Term Debt: $1.88B
Long-Term Debt: $30.47M
Total Debt: $1.91B
Total Equity: $134.37B
Rev/Share (Top-line per share)
HEX
Revenue / Shares Outstanding
$17.53
Revenue: $90.88B
Shares: 5,185,940,000
Book Value/Share (Net assets per share)
HEX
(Total Assets - Total Liabilities) / Shares
$25.91
Total Equity: $134.37B
Shares: 5,185,940,000
FCF/Share (Real cash generated per share)
HEX
(Operating Cash Flow + CapEx) / Shares
$5.27
Operating CF: $57.34B
CapEx: -$30.02B
Shares: 5,185,940,000
CapEx is negative (outflow) — added to OCF to get FCF
Div Yield (Annual income from holding)
TD
Last Annual Dividend / Stock Price
0.8%
Last Dividend: $3.57
Stock Price: $426.35
Payout Ratio (Earnings paid out as dividends)
HEX
Dividends Paid / Net Income
31.3%
Dividends Paid: -$11.40B
Net Income: $36.37B
Industry Benchmarks
Last run: Aug 17, 2026 12:05pm
Compares TSM against LLM-researched typical ranges for its industry. One research call per industry, cached indefinitely — every stock in the same industry reuses the same baseline.
Income Statement (Annual)
Last updated: Aug 17, 2026 11:16am (34d ago)
Metric 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Revenue $42.1B $49.8B $71.1B $67.9B $90.9B
Cost of Revenue $19.7B $24.1B $28.7B $31.0B $39.9B
Gross Profit $22.3B $25.7B $42.3B $36.9B $51.0B
Operating Expenses $4.5B $5.3B $7.1B $8.0B $9.5B
Operating Income $17.8B $20.4B $35.2B $28.9B $41.5B
Net Income $16.0B $18.6B $31.2B $26.7B $36.4B
EBITDA $28.2B $33.7B $48.9B $45.6B $62.3B
EPS $3.09 $3.59 $6.01 $5.16 $7.01
EPS (Diluted) $3.09 $3.59 $6.01 $5.16 $7.01
Balance Sheet (Annual)
Last updated: Aug 17, 2026 11:16am (34d ago)
Metric 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Cash & Equivalents $20.7B $33.4B $42.2B $46.0B $66.8B
Total Current Assets $34.3B $50.5B $64.5B $68.9B $97.0B
Total Assets $86.7B $117.0B $155.9B $173.7B $210.1B
Current Liabilities $19.8B $23.8B $31.0B $29.6B $41.1B
Long-Term Debt $2.2M $3.7M $4.9M $4.5M $30.5M
Total Liabilities $29.0B $49.4B $64.3B $65.3B $75.8B
Total Equity $57.6B $67.6B $91.6B $108.5B $134.4B
Retained Earnings $49.4B $59.3B $81.5B $98.2B $121.6B
Cash Flow (Annual)
Last updated: Aug 17, 2026 11:16am (34d ago)
Metric 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Operating Cash Flow $25.8B $34.9B $50.6B $39.0B $57.3B
Capital Expenditure -$15.9B -$26.4B -$34.0B -$29.8B -$30.0B
Free Cash Flow $9.9B $8.6B $16.6B $9.2B $27.3B
Acquisitions (net)
Net Debt Issued / (Repaid)
Dividends Paid -$8.1B -$8.3B -$9.0B -$9.2B -$11.4B
Stock Buybacks
Net Change in Cash $6.4B $12.7B $8.7B $3.9B $20.8B
Growth Trends (YoY %)
Last updated: Aug 17, 2026 11:16am (34d ago)
Metric 2021 2022 2023 2024
Revenue Growth +18.5% +42.6% -4.5% +33.9%
Gross Profit Growth +15.2% +64.5% -12.8% +38.2%
Operating Income Growth +14.7% +72.5% -17.8% +43.5%
Net Income Growth +16.0% +67.6% -14.2% +36.0%
EBITDA Growth +19.4% +45.3% -6.7% +36.5%
Dividend History (Last 20)
Last updated: Aug 14, 2026 2:03pm (37d ago)
Date Dividend Declaration Record Payment
2026-06-11 $0.96
2026-03-17 $0.96
2025-12-11 $0.84
2025-09-16 $0.82
2025-06-12 $0.69
2025-03-18 $0.68
2024-12-12 $0.62
2024-09-12 $0.63
2024-06-13 $0.54
2024-03-18 $0.55
2023-12-14 $0.48
2023-09-14 $0.49
2023-06-15 $0.46
2023-03-16 $0.43
2022-12-15 $0.45
2022-09-15 $0.46
2022-06-16 $0.46
2022-03-16 $0.48
2021-12-16 $0.50
2021-09-16 $0.49
0Company Classification 1Industry Landscape 2Company Momentum 3Forward Projection 4aDCF Valuation 4bEarnings Power Value 4cAnchored PE 4dReverse DCF 4eRevenue-Based DCF 4fAnchored P/S 4gScenario Analysis 4hDividend Discount Model 4iBook Value Analysis 4jInsider Activity 4fCash Flow Quality 4gDebt Maturity Risk 4hMacro Environment 4iSector Intelligence 4jRevenue Confidence 4kSensitivity Analysis 4lSector Demand Cycle 5AI Investigation 5bThesis Evaluation 6Valuation Synthesis
computed not applicable 18 computed · 6 not applicable
Risk : Reward — upside vs downside from this company's own quarters
Computed 2026-08-17 16:56
Why there is no ratio: No measured quarterly trajectory: this filer has no quarterly statements we can read (annual-only or foreign filer), so there is nothing honest to stress.
Narrative Economics
The story the market is telling about this stock — the intangible X-factor (founder mythology, cult dynamics, TAM-of-imagination) that moves price beyond what cash flows alone explain. After Shiller, Narrative Economics.
No narrative profile yet for TSM — it's generated by the pipeline (market-narrative step).
Growth Outlook
Analyzed 2026-08-17 16:36

The question every valuation on this page silently assumes: is this company likely to grow? Judged forward — the business, its category, the world — against what's already printed.

Growing TSM is compounding at the fastest rate in its history on AI accelerator and advanced-node demand, gaining share inside an already-booming category — but no plausible mechanism supports the ~60% growth the price implies over the structural horizon. conf 8/10
Share gain Category growing · Category is in clear expansion (semiconductor industry revenue CAGR 28.6% over three years, sector phase expansion, industry-wide margins +3.0pp). TSM grew 33.9% YoY against industry 29.1% — a +4.8pp positive gap — while also capturing disproportionate margin, indicating it is gaining share of both volume and value at the leading edge rather than simply riding the tide.
Next 2 quarters
Accelerating
Capacity is sold out at leading edge and in packaging, N2 is ramping into both mobile and HPC, and the growth rate itself has been rising (recent YoY 33.9% versus a 13.1% multi-year CAGR). Visibility for two quarters is unusually high because revenue is capacity-gated with pre-committed allocation, and monthly revenue disclosure removes most surprise risk on the downside.
↑ above expectations
Year 1
Growing
Full-year growth stays strongly positive on AI logic and N2, but the comparison base steps up hard through the year, so the growth RATE most likely decays from the mid-30s toward the high-20s. Mature-node and smartphone/auto softness caps blended upside, and depreciation plus overseas fab costs mean earnings growth need not exceed revenue growth as it did this year.
≈ inline with expectations
Years 2–3
Growing
Structural earnings power grows: leading-edge share is consolidating toward TSM, packaging remains scarce, and geographic expansion is demand-committed. But scale arithmetic, rising depreciation from record capex, and the eventual digestion phase of hyperscaler capex mean the sustainable rate is a strong 15-25%, not a continuation of 30%+. Growth, not acceleration.
↓ below expectations
The creme: each rung's call measured against what's already printed (vs analyst estimates · vs guidance / FY consensus · vs price-implied growth) — expectations in print are already in the price, so only the variant margin can pay. Hover a rung's chip for the margin read.
Growth drivers
86 Advanced-node monopoly on AI logic — N3/N5 and now N2 are effectively single-sourced for the accelerators and premium SoCs of Nvidia, AMD, Apple, Broadcom and the hyperscaler ASIC programs. Intel Foundry and Samsung have not demonstrated competitive yield at leading edge, so incremental AI silicon demand converts almost fully into TSM wafer revenue. This is the mechanism behind recent revenue YoY of +33.9% and earnings +36%, far above the 13% multi-year revenue CAGR.
68 Advanced packaging (CoWoS/SoIC) as a second scarce chokepoint — Packaging capacity, not just wafers, gates AI system shipments. TSM controls allocation and has been able to price for scarcity, which is visible in the industry-wide +3.0pp net margin expansion and in TSM beating EPS estimates five consecutive prints (+5% to +27%). Capacity added here is pre-sold, making near-term revenue unusually visible.
58 Share gain inside a growing category — Company recent YoY 33.9% versus industry 29.1% — a +4.8pp gap. TSM is not merely riding the tide; mix shift toward leading-edge and packaging raises revenue per wafer while competitors' leading-edge stumbles hand over marginal volume.
48 N2 ramp with price uplift — Each node transition has carried higher wafer ASPs, and N2 arrives with demand from both mobile and HPC simultaneously — historically unusual. This supports revenue growth through the year_1 rung even if unit volumes normalize, and partially offsets overseas-fab cost dilution.
26 Customer-funded geographic expansion — Arizona, Japan and Germany capacity is built against committed demand and subsidies, converting geopolitical anxiety into a growth vector rather than only a cost. It extends the runway for capacity-constrained revenue growth beyond the current cycle.
Growth risks
77 Price-implied growth far above any supportable path — Reverse-DCF requires ~60% growth versus the house's 30.7% mechanical projection. Even a bullish reading of AI demand does not produce sustained 60% compounding for a company of this scale; the arithmetic of capacity build limits output growth. This is the dominant risk to the structural rung's read versus expectations.
56 AI capex digestion risk — Demand is concentrated in a handful of hyperscaler and accelerator customers whose own capex is discretionary and lumpy. A single quarter of order-pull normalization would decelerate growth sharply from the current +34% base, given how much of incremental revenue comes from one end-market.
39 Margin drag from overseas fabs, depreciation and FX — Rising capex feeds depreciation; offshore fabs run structurally higher cost; NT dollar strength compresses reported gross margin. Earnings CAGR (8.0%) has historically lagged revenue CAGR (13.1%), showing this drag is real and could make earnings growth undershoot revenue growth again.
31 Cyclical mature-node and non-AI weakness — Smartphone, automotive, industrial and consumer nodes remain soft-to-flat; utilization on trailing nodes is below peak. This caps blended growth and means the reported number is carried by a narrow set of nodes — a fragile composition.
18 Taiwan geopolitical and tariff exposure — Concentration of leading-edge capacity in Taiwan is a low-probability, high-severity discontinuity, plus semiconductor tariff policy could alter customer sourcing economics. Not a base-case growth input, but it caps confidence in the structural rung.
The world's compute buildout has concentrated economic rent into two chokepoints — leading-edge logic and advanced packaging — and TSM owns both. That is a genuine structural change, not a story: AI training and inference silicon must be fabricated somewhere, and there is currently no second viable source at N3/N2 with comparable yield. Against that, the macro backdrop is unfriendly (10y at 4.63%, described headwinds), which pressures the financing of the very hyperscaler capex that drives TSM's order book, and semiconductor demand has never stopped being cyclical. The honest synthesis: the demand vector is real and multi-year, the pace of the last four quarters is not the steady state, and capacity physics plus depreciation will pull growth toward the 20s-30s rather than sustaining the 30s-plus indefinitely.
Growth position composite +26
ShrinkingStallingHoldingGrowingAccelerating
90Next 2 quarters · Accelerating
70Year 1 · Growing
70Years 2–3 · Growing
+26Composite (−100…+100)
A research prediction, not advice. Forward-graded: each rung is scored against the prints that follow it. Not an input to the GEM designation — track record first.
Claude Reading
Independent analyst synthesis · claude-opus-4-7 · generated 2026-08-17 12:46:39
Verdict Overvalued but not by 60% — fair value ~$300-340 on forward earnings; trim above $425, accumulate below $340, don't short an AA-quality monopolist.

The raw numbers first: TSM did $90.9B revenue in 2024 vs $42.1B in 2020 — a 21% four-year CAGR, with 2023 being a cyclical dip ($67.9B) and 2024 snapping back +34% YoY. Net margin expanded from 38.1% (2020) to 40.0% (2024), operating margin sits at 45.7%, ROIC at 49.2%, and net cash position is ~$65B against $1.9B debt. FCF was $27.3B on $57.3B OCF — capex ate $30B, which is the real story: this is a business reinvesting ~33% of revenue in fabs. FCF/NI conversion is only 75%, and FCF/sales is 30% — respectable but not the "toll-booth" fantasy. Recent YoY of 34% revenue and 36% earnings is genuinely exceptional, but the 5-year earnings CAGR is only 8% because 2022 net income ($31.2B) was nearly matched by 2024 ($36.4B) — meaning most of the "AI growth" is just recovering from the 2023 trough plus one strong year.

On valuation, the synthesis DCF fair value of $171 vs $426 price implying 60% overvaluation strikes me as too aggressive on the downside. At 61x trailing P/E the stock is clearly rich, but forward P/E on 2025 consensus (~$9-10 EPS ADR-equivalent) is closer to 25-28x, not 62x — the trailing figure is distorted by the 2023 trough denominator and possibly by an EPS convention issue (TSM ADRs represent 5 ordinary shares; a $426 ADR on $36.4B NI / ~5.19B ADR-equivalent shares = ~$7 EPS = ~60x, so the number checks, but forward is materially lower). A business compounding revenue 15%+ with 40% net margins, 49% ROIC, and a fortress balance sheet deserves 30-35x forward earnings, which pencils to roughly $280-340 fair value — expensive but not the $171 the DCF spits out. The synthesis is likely under-modeling terminal margin durability and the AI capex cycle length.

Where I side with the bears: the insider "purchases" data is suspicious — ten identical-date (2026-08-07, a future date) tiny share counts (33-72 shares) look like DRIP/ESPP artifacts or data corruption, not conviction buying, and the "Net Insider Buying" secondary signal built on that is noise. The narrative layer correctly flags the geopolitical premium: Taiwan Strait risk is un-hedgeable and un-modelable, and at 24x sales you are paid nothing for taking it. The cyclicality point is also real — foundry gross margins have historically swung from 45% (2019) to 59% (2022) to 54% (2023); assuming sustained 56%+ requires believing AI capex doesn't digest like every prior semi cycle. A careful contrarian would note that Intel 18A and Samsung SF2 both target 2025-2026 production, and while execution risk is high, TSM's monopoly premium narrows if either lands even 70% of promises — and Nvidia has publicly explored dual-sourcing.

Net read: I dissent from the synthesis "overvalued to $171" verdict as too extreme, but agree with the direction. Fair value is roughly $300-340 on forward earnings and reasonable terminal assumptions, meaning the stock is 20-30% overvalued, not 60%. The prior models are directionally right but the DCF anchor is mechanically too low, likely because it under-weights the 34% recent growth or applies too high a discount rate to a AA-credit-quality cash machine. I would not short — the narrative durability is real and the fundamentals are genuinely elite — but I would not chase at $426 either. Wait for a cyclical air-pocket (semi corrections routinely deliver 25-30% drawdowns) or a Taiwan headline that resets the geopolitical premium, and accumulate closer to $320.

GPT Reading
Independent reading · gpt-5.4 · generated 2026-08-17 12:46:58
Verdict Overvalued at $426 — this is a world-class franchise, but the current price already assumes years of AI-led hypergrowth and sustained 40% net margins; fair value is closer to $280-$330.

The raw numbers say TSMC is an extraordinary business, but not an ordinary stock. What jumps out first is the operating model: 2024 revenue of $90.88B produced $51.01B of gross profit, $41.51B of operating income, and $36.37B of net income. That is a 56.1% gross margin, 45.7% operating margin, and 40.0% net margin in a manufacturing business that also spent $30.02B on capex. Those are monopoly-like economics layered on top of brutal capital intensity, which is why simplistic “it’s just a cyclical foundry” comparisons break down. The balance sheet is also absurdly strong for the scale: $66.81B of cash against just $1.91B of debt and $134.37B of equity. Return metrics reinforce the point: 27.1% ROE and 49.2% ROIC are not the profile of a commodity fab operator. If you wanted one company globally to toll-collect on advanced compute, these numbers identify it.

The more important question is whether the current valuation already discounts more than even this exceptional quality can deliver. Here I think the market is ahead of itself. On the annual numbers provided, the stock trades around 24.8x sales, 35.1x EV/EBITDA, 61.9x earnings, and 16.7x book. Even allowing for ADR/share count quirks in the exact price mapping, that multiple stack is extremely demanding against the actual growth record. Revenue went from $42.05B in 2020 to $90.88B in 2024, excellent at a 13.1% CAGR, but earnings CAGR is only 8% across that same span because 2024 is being measured off a very strong 2022 and a softer 2023 reset. In other words, the recent rebound is real—2024 revenue up 33.9% and earnings up 36%—but the longer arc still looks like a superb cyclical compounder, not a software platform that deserves infinite duration multiples. Free cash flow of $27.32B is substantial, yet against a $2.21T market cap that is roughly a 1.2% FCF yield. For a business exposed to node transitions, customer concentration, and geopolitical tail risk, that yield is simply too thin. My read is that the market is capitalizing TSMC not as the best semiconductor manufacturer, but as if it has permanently escaped semiconductor cyclicality and capital intensity. The income statement does not prove that.

What stands out to me versus the more bearish model outputs is that they may actually under-credit just how structurally advantaged TSMC has become. A company that converts $57.34B of operating cash flow while keeping debt effectively negligible is not easy to value with generic manufacturing templates. The 2023 dip now looks less like deterioration and more like a pause before a new AI and high-performance computing leg, and the rebound to $36.37B of net income suggests pricing power and utilization are stronger than old-cycle analogies imply. So I do not buy the idea that fair value is as low as the high-$100s; that seems to treat 2024 economics as transient when they may be partly structural. But I still land bearish because even if I give TSMC a premium multiple—say 30-35x normalized earnings on a business that can earn in the high-$30Bs to low-$40Bs—the current $2.2T equity value still looks stretched unless earnings compound at something like 20%+ for years. The numbers in hand do not yet justify that.

The best counterargument is straightforward and smart: trailing multiples are the wrong lens because TSMC is entering a multi-year step-function in demand. If 2024’s $90.88B revenue is just the base and AI, advanced packaging, and 2nm leadership push revenue well above $110B-$120B with margins holding near 2024 levels, then today’s 61.9x trailing P/E could compress fast. The cash balance means the company can fund expansion without stressing the balance sheet, and a 31.3% payout ratio leaves room to return more cash later. A bull would also say that comparing TSMC’s 13.1% four-year revenue CAGR to its current valuation misses an inflection: the company in 2025-2027 is much more strategically central than the company in 2020-2022, so the market is rationally paying for a scarcer asset. I weigh that differently because even scarce assets can be overpaid for, and a foundry still needs to continuously reinvest. When capex is $30.02B in a year and FCF is $27.32B, the equity story remains tethered to execution and utilization, not just franchise prestige.

What would change my mind is evidence that the business is outrunning the valuation rather than merely validating a great story. Specifically, I would want to see another year where revenue grows 25%+ from the $90.88B base, operating margin sustains at or above 45%, and free cash flow expands materially despite capex staying elevated—something like FCF moving toward $35B-$40B without balance-sheet strain. That would show the AI wave is not just boosting revenue but also increasing economic throughput after reinvestment. I would also become more constructive on a large derating: if the stock fell enough that the FCF yield moved closer to 2%-3% while fundamentals stayed intact, the risk/reward would improve sharply. Until then, the company is magnificent and the stock is priced like magnificence plus perfection.

Grok Reading
Independent reading · grok-4.5 · generated 2026-08-17 12:47:31
Verdict Elite franchise, but 62× earnings / ~1.2% FCF yield at $426 embeds perfection; fair value nearer $200–250

TSMC’s 2024 print is the cleanest operating year in the dataset: revenue leapt to $90.88B from $67.88B (+33.9% YoY) and net income to $36.37B from $26.75B, restoring and then exceeding the 2022 peak after the 2023 inventory air-pocket. Gross margin held at 56.1%, operating margin 45.7%, net margin 40.0%—factory economics almost no other capital-intensive manufacturer can touch. ROIC at 49% and a balance sheet with $66.8B cash against $1.9B debt confirm the franchise quality. Free cash flow of $27.3B after $30.0B of capex shows the company can still throw off real cash while funding the leading-edge node race. The story the numbers tell is unambiguous operational dominance and a genuine AI-driven volume and mix surge.

What the same numbers do not support is the multiple. At $426 the stock trades at 62× trailing earnings, 25× sales, and 35× EV/EBITDA, with a free-cash-flow yield of roughly 1.2% on a $2.21T equity value. Five-year revenue CAGR is only 13.1% and earnings CAGR 8%; the recent 34–36% YoY acceleration is real but still sits on a cyclical base that already corrected once in 2023. Even granting durable mid-teens growth and structural 40%+ net margins, a 60×+ earnings multiple prices in multi-year perfection plus an optionality premium that leaves almost no room for node delays, customer concentration (Nvidia/Apple/AMD), or any moderation in AI capex. The quantitative fair-value cluster near $170 is directionally right even if the precise DCF is too punitive: the gap between cash generation and price is the dominant fact.

The strongest counter-argument is that TSMC is not a normal foundry. It is the sole scaled producer of leading-edge logic, the toll bridge for every advanced AI accelerator, and the beneficiary of Western industrial-policy money that will keep utilization and pricing firm for years. ROIC near 50%, net-cash fortress, and FCF CAGR of 28% argue the market is correctly capitalizing a structural monopoly rather than a cyclical peak. Geopolitical risk, the bears’ favorite club, is already partially offset by CHIPS Act subsidies and multi-continent capacity build-outs that deepen customer lock-in. If AI semiconductor TAM compounds at 20%+ through 2028 and TSMC keeps 50%+ share of leading-edge wafers, today’s multiple can be grown into rather than compressed. That case is coherent; it simply requires the current hyper-growth regime to persist far longer than semiconductor history usually allows.

I would reverse to neutral or constructive only if the next four quarters show revenue still growing >25% with gross margins holding above 55% while capex intensity begins to roll over, or if forward P/E compresses into the mid-30s on earnings beats rather than on a price collapse. A clear de-escalation in Taiwan Strait risk that removes the geopolitical discount without removing the strategic premium would also matter. Until one of those arrives, the stock is a superb business priced as if nothing can go wrong.

Big-3 Panel — where each AI stands
Each AI above independently stated a direction (undervalued, fairly valued, or overvalued) and how strongly it believes it (conviction, 0–5). We combine those into a Bull-Bear Index on a 0–10 scale: 5 is neutral, 10 is maximum bullish (undervalued at full conviction), 0 is maximum bearish. We compute the score ourselves with the same arithmetic for every seat — the models never grade their own bullishness — so the three are directly comparable. Δ shows how far each seat sits from the panel average of 1.3; a large Δ marks the dissenting voice, usually the one worth reading.
Claude claude-opus-4-7 2.0
overvalued · conviction 3/5 · Δ +0.7 vs panel · self: 4.0
GPT gpt-5.4 1.0
overvalued · conviction 4/5 · Δ -0.3 vs panel · self: 3.0
Grok grok-4.5 1.0
overvalued · conviction 4/5 · Δ -0.3 vs panel · self: 3.0
Advanced Analysis Forensic deep-dive · separate lenses
Separate reads — Company Quality (is it a great business?), Valuation (is it mispriced?), and General Sentiment (how macro + narrative are pushing it), kept deliberately apart · 2026-08-17 12:58:01
Delvantic - Cairn AI
Great business, wait for a dip 8/10
Fortress-quality AI monopolist priced for perfection at $433 - own it, but only after a real reset toward the low $300s.
The cruxWhether AI capex stays vertical long enough to grow TSM into a multiple where DCF/EPV catch up, or whether a cycle digestion drops it back into the $300s where quality and price finally rhyme.
Forensic checks Derived mechanically from TSM's filed financials — not from the AI lenses
Liquidity & RunwaySelf-Funding
DilutionStable Share Count
Earnings QualityHigh Earnings Quality
The four lensesswitch a tab for its full read — score + evidence
Company Quality
+78
Fortress
edge √Σ 180 · risk √Σ 74 · conf 9/10

Revenue scaled from $42.05B (2020) to $90.88B (2024), a 21% CAGR, while operating margin ran 40.9%-49.5% and gross margin 51.6%-59.6%. Net income more than doubled from $16.04B to $36.37B, and 2024 FCF of $27.32B alongside $64.90B net cash means the business self-funds an extraordinarily capex-heavy roadmap without dilution - diluted share count is flat at 5.19B across five years. The 2023 dip (revenue -4.5%, FCF to $9.17B) shows cyclicality but recovery was sharp and margins held above 42% operating even in the trough. Earnings-quality checks are clean and unusually strong: OCF/NI 1.63x, accruals -11% of assets, Beneish M -2.62, Altman Z 19.73. Nothing in the mechanical forensics suggests the reported numbers are anything but real cash economics. Insider tape shows 40 small open-market P-purchases by named engineers/managers in the last 12 months with almost no sales - consistent with a broad-based internal share program and, at minimum, no adverse signal. The business context - N3/N2 leading-edge foundry with effective monopoly on advanced-node logic manufacturing for Apple, Nvidia, AMD, Qualcomm - underpins the pricing power visible in margins.

Strengths 5
m90
Elite margin structure at scale
Operating margin 45.7% and gross margin 56.1% on $90.88B revenue in 2024; margins held >42% operating even in the 2023 down-cycle - evidence of durable pricing power in leading-edge nodes.
m85
Self-funded despite extreme capex intensity
$27.32B FCF and $64.90B net cash in 2024 while funding Arizona, Japan, Germany fabs - no external capital dependency. Altman Z 19.73.
m80
Zero dilution over five years
Diluted shares flat at 5.19B from 2020-2024; SBC negligible as % of revenue. Per-share value fully protected during massive expansion.
m75
Clean earnings quality
OCF/NI 1.63x, accruals -11% of assets, Beneish M -2.62 - reported earnings are backed by cash and then some.
m70
Compounding growth
Revenue 21% CAGR and net income 23% CAGR 2020-2024; 2024 net income $36.37B more than 2x 2020's $16.04B.
Concerns 3
m40
Cyclicality visible
2023 revenue -4.5% and FCF cut nearly in half to $9.17B vs 2022's $16.58B - the business is not immune to semi cycles.
m55
Geopolitical concentration (inference)
Core manufacturing base in Taiwan with China-Taiwan tension is a structural, non-financial risk not visible in the numbers but material to durability - partially mitigated by fab diversification in progress.
m30
Customer concentration (to verify)
Advanced-node revenue is heavily tied to a handful of hyperscaler/fabless customers (Apple, Nvidia); not disclosed in the provided data but a known structural feature to verify in the 10-K.
This is about as clean a large-cap quality profile as you find. Margins at 45%+ operating on $90B of revenue with flat share count and $65B net cash is what a moat actually looks like in the financials - the pricing power in leading-edge logic shows up unambiguously. Earnings-quality mechanics are pristine, cash conversion is strong, and the insider tape shows employees buying, not selling. What keeps me from grading higher is honest: it's a cyclical industry (2023 proved it) and the geographic concentration risk is real and outside management's full control. Business quality: top-decile globally.
Verify before trusting this (5)
  • Customer concentration disclosure in 20-F - top-5 customer % of revenue and trend
  • Capex outlook and progress/economics of Arizona, Japan, Germany fabs vs Taiwan margin profile
  • Advanced-node (N3/N2) revenue mix and pricing trajectory
  • Any dividend or buyback policy changes given $64.90B net cash
  • Contingency disclosures around Taiwan Strait / export-control exposure to China
Valuation / Mispricing
-73
Rich
edge √Σ 25 · risk √Σ 118 · conf 6/10
price $434 vs deserved roughly $200-$325 depending on method - the anchored-PE ceiling of $324 still implies about 25% downside, so no margin of safety. attractive below $320.00

The composite fair value of $168.97 and signal-adjusted $170.78 imply about -61% downside from $434.14. The DCF ($89.68) and EPV floor ($63.29) look punitive and likely under-weight the durable pricing power TSMC has demonstrated in leading-edge nodes, but even the most generous input, the anchored-PE at $323.76, still sits about 25% below today's price. Taken together, the deserved value under skeptical assumptions is well south of the current quote, and the fortress balance sheet (roughly $65B net cash) does not close that gap.

Cheap signals 1
m25
Fortress quality deserves a premium
78 quality score, 45%+ operating margins, $65B net cash, clean earnings quality - genuinely raises deserved multiple above a generic foundry, but not to 2.5x FV.
Rich / priced-in 5
m72
Composite FV implies ~61% downside
Signal-adjusted FV of $170.78 vs $434.14 price is a large gap; even discounting DCF/EPV as too conservative, the blend is emphatic.
m60
Even the generous method says rich
Anchored-PE at $323.76 is the most business-friendly input and still sits ~25% below spot - no method reaches today's price.
m55
Priced for perfect AI-era execution
To justify $434, the market needs sustained 25-30% EPS growth with margins holding through a cyclical industry - heroic given historical foundry cyclicality and capex intensity.
m30
DCF/EPV look too punitive to anchor on alone
DCF $89.68 and EPV $63.29 likely under-model pricing power in leading-edge nodes; treat them as floors, not central estimates - but they still frame the downside if AI capex normalizes.
m35
Taiwan geopolitical premium missing
Current price bakes in no meaningful discount for cross-strait risk despite concentration of leading-edge capacity in Taiwan; a deserved value should carry some haircut here.
I like the business a lot, but I am not paying $434 for it. Every valuation method in the brief lands below the price, and even the most generous one (anchored-PE $324) implies I am overpaying by a quarter. The market is treating TSM as if AI demand is a secular step-change with no cyclicality and no Taiwan risk - both assumptions are aggressive. I would want it in the low $300s before it is interesting, and closer to $250 to feel a real margin of safety on a business this good.
Verify before trusting this (4)
  • Forward capex guidance vs revenue growth - is incremental ROIC on N2/A16 fabs holding?
  • Utilization and pricing on N3/N5 as AI mix shifts - any signs of hyperscaler capex digestion
  • Segment disclosure on HPC/AI as % of revenue and its gross margin vs corporate average
  • Arizona/Japan/Germany fab economics - dilution to consolidated margins as geographic mix shifts
General Sentiment
+70
Strong Tailwind
tail √Σ 146 · head √Σ 59 · conf 8/10

The non-fundamental pressure on TSM is decisively positive. The archetype here is platform-monopoly with strong intensity and durable shelf life: TSM is cast as the irreplaceable fab for every marquee AI chip, and that story is being actively reinforced by news flow (Nvidia expanding its AI stack, SpaceX floating half-a-trillion data-center capex, Microsoft reviving AI infra). Recent headlines explicitly frame TSM as the smart-money AI pick, with hedge fund rotation OUT of Broadcom and INTO TSM - that is a live, name-specific tailwind, not a generic sector tag. Momentum confirms it: 33.9% recent vs 13.1% long-run trend, and a 7.6% single-day pop on AI packaging news.

Tailwinds 5
m85
Platform-monopoly AI narrative in full force
Durable, strong-intensity story that TSM is the sole gatekeeper of advanced AI silicon. This is the single dominant force on the tape and it lands squarely on THIS name - not a sector-wide tag.
m70
Smart-money rotation into TSM
Multiple headlines cite Druckenmiller/Loeb/Tepper-type funds rotating out of Broadcom and other AI names and adding TSM. Named-fund flow is a direct sentiment tailwind on this ticker.
m60
AI capex headlines feeding the story
SpaceX $500B data-center plans, Nvidia expanding its stack, Microsoft AI infra revival - every one of these reinforces TSM demand narrative in the 72h window.
m55
Risk-on tape amplified by 1.26 beta
VIX 14.3, S&P near highs, 10d established risk-on regime. High-beta AI-narrative names get the biggest lift from this kind of calm, bid tape.
m50
Momentum trend firmly positive
Recent 33.9% run vs 13.1% long-run CAGR shows sentiment is accelerating, not fading - a self-reinforcing tailwind while the AI story holds.
Headwinds 4
m40
Rates and market PE cap the melt-up
10y 4.63% and market PE 26.2 create a valuation ceiling for richly-priced growth names. Not enough to reverse the narrative but it throttles the upside pressure.
m30
Taiwan geopolitical premium is fragile
Part of the current bid is a supply-chain-relocation premium; any China-Taiwan flare or a Japan-earthquake-style operational shock (as on 7/29) can trigger sharp air-pockets in this specific name.
m25
SoftBank trimming TSM
A visible large-holder rotating out (to Capital One) is a mild negative signal, though offset by other funds rotating in.
m20
Sep/Oct seasonal volatility warnings
Media is already priming investors for autumn volatility - a modest, timing-only pressure on a high-beta name.
The pressure on TSM right now is heavily positive and it is stock-specific, not just borrowed from the tape. The platform-monopoly AI narrative is durable, strong, and being actively fed by name-level news (smart-money rotation, hyperscaler capex, Nvidia moves), while a calm risk-on backdrop amplifies a beta-1.26 story stock. The counterweights - rates, valuation gravity, Taiwan tail risk, SoftBank trim - are real but ordinary crosswinds against a dominant narrative. My read: strong tailwind, and the risk is not that sentiment fades gradually but that the AI story or Taiwan premium cracks abruptly. Until then, the tape is doing the work for this name.
Verify before trusting this (5)
  • Any crack in AI capex commitments from hyperscalers (MSFT, META, GOOGL, AMZN) - the story lives or dies here
  • Taiwan Strait geopolitical headlines or CHIPS Act policy shifts that would puncture the geopolitical premium
  • Whether the smart-money rotation into TSM shows up in 13F flows next filing cycle or reverses
  • 10y yield breaking above 4.75% - would compress multiples on high-PE AI names
  • September FOMC tone and any risk-off pivot that would hit beta-1.26 names hardest
The market-wide tape + this name's exposure to it (beta / sector / narrative durability). Context on the non-fundamental pressure — not a call on the business or the price. processId: detail-general-sentiment
Growth Outlook
+26
Growing
edge √Σ 136 · risk √Σ 109 · conf 8/10

The world's compute buildout has concentrated economic rent into two chokepoints — leading-edge logic and advanced packaging — and TSM owns both. That is a genuine structural change, not a story: AI training and inference silicon must be fabricated somewhere, and there is currently no second viable source at N3/N2 with comparable yield. Against that, the macro backdrop is unfriendly (10y at 4.63%, described headwinds), which pressures the financing of the very hyperscaler capex that drives TSM's order book, and semiconductor demand has never stopped being cyclical. The honest synthesis: the demand vector is real and multi-year, the pace of the last four quarters is not the steady state, and capacity physics plus depreciation will pull growth toward the 20s-30s rather than sustaining the 30s-plus indefinitely.

Growth drivers 5
m86
Advanced-node monopoly on AI logic
N3/N5 and now N2 are effectively single-sourced for the accelerators and premium SoCs of Nvidia, AMD, Apple, Broadcom and the hyperscaler ASIC programs. Intel Foundry and Samsung have not demonstrated competitive yield at leading edge, so incremental AI silicon demand converts almost fully into TSM wafer revenue. This is the mechanism behind recent revenue YoY of +33.9% and earnings +36%, far above the 13% multi-year revenue CAGR.
m68
Advanced packaging (CoWoS/SoIC) as a second scarce chokepoint
Packaging capacity, not just wafers, gates AI system shipments. TSM controls allocation and has been able to price for scarcity, which is visible in the industry-wide +3.0pp net margin expansion and in TSM beating EPS estimates five consecutive prints (+5% to +27%). Capacity added here is pre-sold, making near-term revenue unusually visible.
m58
Share gain inside a growing category
Company recent YoY 33.9% versus industry 29.1% — a +4.8pp gap. TSM is not merely riding the tide; mix shift toward leading-edge and packaging raises revenue per wafer while competitors' leading-edge stumbles hand over marginal volume.
m48
N2 ramp with price uplift
Each node transition has carried higher wafer ASPs, and N2 arrives with demand from both mobile and HPC simultaneously — historically unusual. This supports revenue growth through the year_1 rung even if unit volumes normalize, and partially offsets overseas-fab cost dilution.
m26
Customer-funded geographic expansion
Arizona, Japan and Germany capacity is built against committed demand and subsidies, converting geopolitical anxiety into a growth vector rather than only a cost. It extends the runway for capacity-constrained revenue growth beyond the current cycle.
Growth risks 5
m77
Price-implied growth far above any supportable path
Reverse-DCF requires ~60% growth versus the house's 30.7% mechanical projection. Even a bullish reading of AI demand does not produce sustained 60% compounding for a company of this scale; the arithmetic of capacity build limits output growth. This is the dominant risk to the structural rung's read versus expectations.
m56
AI capex digestion risk
Demand is concentrated in a handful of hyperscaler and accelerator customers whose own capex is discretionary and lumpy. A single quarter of order-pull normalization would decelerate growth sharply from the current +34% base, given how much of incremental revenue comes from one end-market.
m39
Margin drag from overseas fabs, depreciation and FX
Rising capex feeds depreciation; offshore fabs run structurally higher cost; NT dollar strength compresses reported gross margin. Earnings CAGR (8.0%) has historically lagged revenue CAGR (13.1%), showing this drag is real and could make earnings growth undershoot revenue growth again.
m31
Cyclical mature-node and non-AI weakness
Smartphone, automotive, industrial and consumer nodes remain soft-to-flat; utilization on trailing nodes is below peak. This caps blended growth and means the reported number is carried by a narrow set of nodes — a fragile composition.
m18
Taiwan geopolitical and tariff exposure
Concentration of leading-edge capacity in Taiwan is a low-probability, high-severity discontinuity, plus semiconductor tariff policy could alter customer sourcing economics. Not a base-case growth input, but it caps confidence in the structural rung.
vs expectations: ~6m above · 1y inline · 2-3y below
The forward growth verdict — is the business itself likely to grow (next 2 quarters / year 1 / years 2–3), judged against its category and against printed expectations. The full horizon ladder + creme renders on the Growth Outlook card above. Not a call on the price (Valuation owns that) or the tape (Sentiment owns that).
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Lenses kept deliberately separate — Company Quality (price-agnostic), Valuation (price-conditional), General Sentiment (non-fundamental macro/narrative pressure), and Growth Outlook (the forward growth verdict). The scores are not blended. Filing-level items (convertibles, lock-ups, customer concentration) are v2 — see each lens's "verify."
Price Prediction
About flat +0.9% v0.6.0 View full prediction →

When we made this prediction on Aug 18, 2026, TSM was $430.97. We expect it to be $435.00 by Feb 2027, and we consider it great value under $320.00. This is an early model (v0.6.0) — the direction is more reliable than the exact price. Made Aug 18, 2026.

Price when predicted$430.97
Our estimate for Feb 2027$435.00+0.9%
Great value below$320.00
Price history shown (6 Months)

Blue is our prediction, starting the day we made it. Grey is a slower route to the same place — the same destination, taking longer. Black is the actual price, so you can see how we are doing.

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My Notes personal — only you see this
v1.1.630 · f72b55f1 · 2026-09-20 19:58:59