TSMC Q1 profits down: 28nm a "roaring success"

TSMC, the company that fabricates the chips found in electronics the world over, has announced its Q1 financial results. Profits are up over last quarter, but they're still below what the company was seeing for the Q1 of last year. Total revenue was NT $105.51 billion (~$3.59 billion), which gave TSMC a profit of NT $33.47 billion (~$1.14 billion). Revenue was up 0.1% over last year, but profits are down 7.7%.

The 40nm and 65nm process used in current chips made up a large part of TSMC's business, accounting for 32% and 26% of chip revenue respectively. The new 28nm process that will be used in upcoming GPUs, as well as Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 processors, only make up around 5% of revenue right now, but TSMC says there's a strong demand for that variant and expects profits to bounce back as a result.

TSMC will also be investing in a 20nm research and development line, and is sinking $8.5 billion into the project, part of which helped fund current 28nm production facilities. CEO of TSMC, Morris Chang, says that "28-nanometer is turning out to be a roaring success", and that the worst part of the supply shortage is behind the company. Chang says TSMC will have caught up with demand by Q4.

[via PCWorld/Engadget]