TSMC’s Margin Dominance
In the first quarter of 2026, TSMC delivered $35.90 billion in revenue, a 40.6% year-over-year increase. The company achieved a gross margin of 66.2%. This financial output was supported by “strong demand for our leading-edge process technologies,” according to TSMC CFO Wendell Huang.
Advanced technologies, defined as 7-nanometer and below, accounted for 74% of TSMC’s total wafer revenue in the quarter. TSMC expects its second-quarter revenue to be between $39.0 billion and $40.2 billion.
TSMC CEO C.C. Wei noted that “AI-related demand continues to be extremely robust”. The company maintains conviction in the “multi-year AI megatrend” and is increasing capital expenditures to expand its 3-nanometer capacity globally to meet this demand.
Intel’s Turnaround
Driven by the shift toward “agentic” AI, which uses the CPU as a critical control plane, Intel reported first quarter 2026 revenue of $13.6 billion, up 7% year-over-year. Intel’s Data Center and AI (DCAI) segment revenue grew 22% during the quarter.
Its non-GAAP gross margin reached 41.0%. Intel’s AI-driven businesses currently represent 60% of its revenue, and the company forecasts second-quarter 2026 revenue of $13.8 billion to $14.8 billion.
Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan stated, “The next wave of Al will bring intelligence closer to the end user, moving from foundational models to inference to agentic. This shift is significantly increasing the ...
