Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company on Thursday reported a 35% increase in fourth-quarter profit, beating estimates and hitting a fresh record as demand for artificial intelligence chips remained strong.

Here are the company’s results versus LSEG SmartEstimates, which are weighted toward forecasts from analysts who are more consistently accurate:

• Revenue: 1.046 trillion new Taiwan dollars ($33.73 billion), vs. NT$1.034 trillion expected
• Net income: NT$505.74 billion, vs. NT$478.37 billion expected

The world’s largest contract chipmaker has now posted year-over-year profit growth for eight consecutive quarters.

Meanwhile, TSMC’s revenue in the December quarter rose by 20.5% from a year ago to surpass NT$1 trillion, also beating forecasts.

In an earnings call, TSMC executives guided revenue for the current quarter to hit between $34.6 billion and $35.8 billion, up 4% sequentially, or up 38% year-over-year at the midpoint. 

“We expect our business to be supported by continued strong demand for our leading edge process technologies,” said TSMC’s Chief Financial Officer Wendell Huang during an earnings call, adding that the company’s profit margins have been increasing.

TSMC, Asia’s largest technology company by market capitalization, has benefited greatly from the proliferation of artificial intelligence, producing advanced AI processors for clients such as Nvidia and AMD. 

The company’s high-performance computing division, which includes artificial intelligence and 5G applications, made up the majority of sales in the October-December quarter at 55%. Demand from smartphones made up 32% of sales.

TSMC said advanced chips measuring 7-nanometer or smaller made up 77% of total wafer revenue during the quarter. For full-year 2025, those chips made up 74% of revenue, up from 69% in 2024.

In semiconductor technology, smaller nanometer sizes indicate more compact transistor designs, allowing faster processing speeds and greater energy efficiency.

The company is looking to further ramp up its cutting-edge 2 nm offerings this year, after rolling out mass production last quarter.

With TSMC further leaning into its advanced products, it said that its capital expenditure was expected to reach between $52 billion and $56 billion in 2026, as compared to $40.9 billion in 2025.

“The demand for AI remains very strong, driving overall chip demand across the entire server industry,” Counterpoint Research senior analyst Jake Lai told CNBC, predicting that 2026 will be another “breakout year” for AI server demand. 

“With TSMC’s ongoing 2nm capacity expansion and new production contributing to revenue, along with continuous expansion of advanced packaging… TSMC is expected to maintain strong performance in 2026,” Lai said. 

However, he added that chip demand tied to consumer electronics such as smartphones and PCs could be affected by the ongoing memory shortage and price hikes.

During the earnings call on Thursday, TSMC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer C.C. Wei acknowledged the memory shortage but argued that TSMC is focused on high-end smartphones, which are less sensitive to the memory prices.

However, Wei flagged global tariff policies as a potential risk factor headed into 2026.

Palantir is rolling out its first two artificial intelligence-enabled systems to the U.S. Army, the company said Friday.

The Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node systems, or TITAN, act as a mobile ground station that harness AI to collect data from space sensors to assist soldiers with warfare strategy and improve strike targeting and accuracy, according to Palantir.

President and Chief Technology Officer of Palantir USG Akash Jain called the agreement a “leapfrog moment” for the U.S. Army as it makes a big investment in software during an interview with CNBC’s Morgan Brennan.

Palantir won the $178 million contract last March, beating out competitor and defense giant RTX Corporation. It marked a key milestone for the company known for its data analysis and software services, as well as the first time a software company has worked as a primary contractor for a significant hardware program.

The company has long provided solutions to U.S. government and defense agencies, showing 45% year-over-year growth in that segment last quarter. The agreement with Palantir also underscores the shifting landscape of software use on the battlefield. Earlier this week, Scale AI announced a deal with the Department of Defense for a flagship AI agent program.

The agreement includes a total of 10 TITAN systems. Each system includes an advanced system with two larger trucks and a basic system with two vehicles delivered over five delivery orders, Jain explained. The systems allow soldiers to make intelligence decisions without requiring the cloud, putting “all that power in the back of a truck,” he added.

Palantir also joined forces with Northrop Grumman, L3Harris and Palmer Luckey-founded defense tech startup Anduril Industries on some capabilities for the program.

The news from Palantir comes during a volatile period for the 2024 S&P 500 front-runner. Shares have lost more than one-fourth of their value over the past month as risk-off sentiment hits Wall Street and the buzzing tech sector. Last month, shares jumped 24% to a record high after the company reported strong earnings and guidance fueled by AI demand.

Palantir has been a prime beneficiary of the AI tailwinds that have swept the broader industry and market, jumping 340% last year. The company’s CEO, Alex Karp, has been a vocal proponent of investing in the U.S. tech sector to protect against adversaries.

In response to DeepSeek’s sudden rush onto the tech scene in January, Karp told CNBC’s Sara Eisen that the U.S. needs an “all-country effort” to protect American innovation from getting stolen and misused.

Jain told CNBC that Palantir has been harnessing soldier feedback as it works to deliver the systems on time and on budget.

— CNBC’S Morgan Brennan contributed reporting.

BEIJING — China’s Xiaomi said Tuesday that it had delivered more than 20,000 SU7 EVs in October as it ramps up production for its electric car venture in a fiercely competitive market.

The Chinese company, which is largely known for its smartphones and home appliances, reiterated plans to deliver 100,000 SU7 vehicles by the end of November. Xiaomi first revealed plans to make cars in 2021 and began building a dedicated manufacturing plant the same year.

The company released the basic version of the SU7, its first car, in late March for about $4,000 less than Tesla‘s cheapest car — Model 3 — in China at the time. Tesla subsequently cut the car’s price by about $2,000. Xiaomi has delivered more than 75,000 SU7 cars to date, including October’s figures.

Chinese rivals Xpeng and Nio took about six years to produce 100,000 electric cars, while it took Tesla 12 years.

While Xpeng delivered a monthly record of more than 20,000 cars in September, with about half owed to its newly launched, lower-cost brand Mona, Nio has struggled to keep monthly deliveries above 20,000 cars.

Zeekr, an electric car brand founded by automaker Geely, has claimed it produced more than 100,000 vehicles in 1.5 years. It delivered a record 21,333 cars in September.

Data on other Chinese electric car companies’ deliveries for October is expected Friday.

“News of 20k deliveries in October confirms that [Xiaomi] is going to be a force to reckon with in the world’s largest EV market,” said Brian Tycangco, an analyst at Stansberry Research.

He said Xiaomi’s electric car gross profit margins in August were similar to Xpeng’s that month, and have likely improved since, given ramped up production.

Xiaomi on Tuesday also announced it was taking preorders for the high-end sports version, SU7 Ultra, starting at 814,900 yuan ($114,304), ahead of a product release in March 2025. The company claimed that within 10 minutes, it received more than 3,600 preorders, each requiring a 10,000 yuan deposit.

The new model and its touted achievements on the Nurburgring race track in Germany will likely help Xiaomi sell more of its premium SU7 Max car, which costs just 299,900 yuan, Citi analysts said in a report. They now expect Xiaomi to deliver 250,000 cars next year, up from 238,000 previously forecast.

Xiaomi claimed a prototype of the SU7 Ultra this week became the fastest four-door sedan to complete the German race track.

Citi analysts increased their price target on Xiaomi to 30.60 Hong Kong dollars ($3.94), up from 22.70 HK dollars. They also raised forecasts for the company’s smartphone shipments, following the launch of Xiaomi’s flagship Mi 15 device Tuesday — the first phone to use Qualcomm’s newest chipset.

Tesla’s Model Y was the best-selling battery-powered electric car in China in September with 48,202 vehicles sold, according to data from Chinese car industry site Autohome. The Model 3 ranked 8th with nearly 24,000 cars sold.

BYD’s lower-priced models accounted for most of the other top 10 bestsellers in the battery-only category. Xiaomi’s SU7 ranked 17th last month with 13,559 cars sold, the data showed.

Xiaomi currently only sells its cars in China. The company told CNBC earlier this year it would take at least two to three years for any overseas launch.

— CNBC’s Sonia Heng contributed to this report.

One exchange-traded fund is betting on a U.S. manufacturing job resurgence.

Tema ETFs CEO and founder Maurits Pot is behind the American Reshoring ETF (RSHO) that focuses on industrials.

“Some will call it deglobalization. We’re in the early innings,” Pot told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week. “At the heart of it is job creation, manufacturing and reshoring — bringing back local manufacturing jobs.”

Pot’s firm launched the American Reshoring ETF in May 2023. Since its inception, the exchange-traded fund is up almost 37% as of Wednesday’s close.

Despite the strong performance, “ETF Edge” host Bob Pisani contends ETFs built around a theme often come and go.

However, Strategas’ Todd Sohn, who tracks the ETF industry, thinks investing in U.S. manufacturing is a sound strategy. He points to the industrial sector’s runway for growth after a vast reduction in size over the past three decades.

“If I am going to play the industrials in a thematic way, I like the route of going active,” the firm’s managing director said. “I do think there is staying power here as opposed to some of the fads we’ve seen in the thematic space — particularly those that are a little more tech and growth oriented.”

The American Reshoring ETF is underperforming the broader market over the past three months, falling more than 4%.

Disclaimer