Caroline Hyde

How are investors trying to play this?

Are they still worried about an AI bubble or are they still all in on the areas that still are in demand?

Well, there are now bottlenecks that are trying to pop, as you say.

One is energy and memory chips.

We also have a heavy rise in metal prices, especially copper prices that are pressuring input prices higher.

And these pressure in input prices started to worry investors in many segments.

Not all segments are concerned, but many segments, especially hardware companies,

and data centers are now feeling the pinch of higher input costs and eventually higher energy prices as well.

And one of the other problems is all we see, the trade tensions, potential shock to supply chains, and all of that is just playing quite negatively into this AI, the optimistic AI narrative that we had seen over the past three years.

And then comes TSMC that sort of eased a lot of that anxiety, saying that AI demand, we see it.

Sure, we're cautious, but we see it and we build.

What does that mean about the ultimate story?

How much did optimism get braved back?

Well, it did.

TSMC beat estimates.

I was not surprised.

That's just another quarter of very strong results from TSMC.

And they say that the demand in AI remains strong and they're building more chip plans.

And that also justifies TSMC's building

chip plans outside the United States, in Japan, in Europe, and obviously in the U.S.