Stock market today: Stocks fall as investors rotate out of tech into Jackson Hole
Investing.com-- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TMSC) January sales grew at a slower pace from the prior month, as the chipmaker faced some production disruptions due to an earthquake in Taiwan.
TSMC (TW:2330) (NYSE:TSM)’s net January revenue rose to T$293.29 billion ($8.93 billion), up 5.4% from December 2024 and up 35.9% from January 2024. The chipmaker also warned that due to disruptions from the earthquake, its first-quarter revenue is forecast at the lower end of its $25 billion and $25.8 billion guidance range.
TSMC’s pace of sales growth slowed in January from the nearly 58% year-on-year jump seen in December.
The company- which is the world’s biggest contract chipmaker- said that estimated losses from a 6.4 magnitude earthquake that hit Taiwan in January amounted to about T$5.3 billion, but that there was no structural damage to its factories.
“A certain number of wafers in process were impacted and had to be scrapped due to the earthquake and aftershocks,” TSMC said in a statement.
The company was also grappling with a recent rout in its share price, after the release of China’s DeepSeek artificial intelligence model in late-January.
The DeepSeek R1 model appeared to match the capabilities of rivals such as ChatGPT while using older hardware and a substantially lower budget.
DeepSeek sparked a rout in tech stocks, especially chipmakers, given that it raised questions over just how justified the hundreds of billions of dollars being spent on AI chips were.
TSMC has benefited greatly from increased spending on AI chips over the past two years, and recently clocked stellar fourth-quarter earnings.
Several of Wall Street’s so-called AI hyperscalers- Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), and Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META)- flagged in their recent earnings reports that they will ramp up AI-related capital spending in 2025.