TAIPEI, April 16 (Reuters) – TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, posted a 58% jump in first-quarter net profit on Thursday, beating market forecasts and hitting a record, as it benefits from huge appetite globally for its artificial intelligence processors.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, whose customers include Nvidia and Apple, saw January-March net profit rise to T$572.5 billion ($18.2 billion).
The profit handily beat a T$543.3 billion LSEG SmartEstimate, which is weighted toward forecasts from analysts who are more consistently accurate.
($1 = 31.5180 Taiwan dollars)
(Reporting by Wen-Yee Lee, Faith Hung and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)

