Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is not simply riding the artificial intelligence wave; it is trying to keep from drowning in orders. At the company’s annual shareholder meeting in Hsinchu on June 4, chief executive C.C. Wei made clear that AI demand is not a bubble waiting to burst. Customers remain upbeat, backlogs are lengthening, and TSMC’s most urgent task is expanding capacity fast enough to avoid becoming the choke point for the entire technology industry.
Wei told investors that demand for AI chips is “extremely robust” and will outstrip supply “for a long time.” Reuters reported from the meeting that TSMC is “working very hard” to increase output and prevent the kind of bottlenecks that have stalled other corners of the chip market. The remarks come as rival foundries struggle to yield competitively at advanced nodes, leaving TSMC with unusual leverage over the world’s largest tech firms.
That leverage is already translating into pricing power. Wei said he would “like to” raise prices to improve margins, but stressed the company will avoid abrupt, “memory-style” hikes that have historically damaged supplier relationships. Instead, TSMC appears to be taking a slower, more surgical approach. The strategy makes sense. Nvidia, Apple, AMD, and a growing list of custom ASIC designers have nowhere else to turn for leading-edge 3nm and soon 2nm production. If TSMC can lift prices without triggering a revolt, it cements its position as the essential artery of the AI economy.
The numbers back up the confidence. TSMC reaffirmed its target of more than 30 percent revenue growth for the full year 2026, a figure that would have seemed absurdly ambitious just two years ago but now looks conservative given the backlog. Bloomberg noted that Wei warned global chip supply will fall short of AI-fueled demand for years, not quarters.
This is not the first time TSMC has hinted at steeper tabs. TrendForce reported on May 27 that the foundry is eyeing a price increase of up to 15 percent on 3nm wafers in the second half of 2026, with another 5 to 10 percent possible in 2027. Those increases are driven largely by AI and custom ASIC demand, which consume massive die area and require TSMC’s most advanced, most expensive processes. TrendForce’s report suggested the hikes are already being communicated to key partners and could take effect once capacity allocations are finalized.
The market reaction on June 4 reflected that reality. Shares held firm as investors digested the idea that TSMC can grow volume and average selling price simultaneously, a rare combination in semiconductors. Industry watchers on social media pointed out that TSMC’s partnership-first rhetoric is itself a competitive weapon. While memory vendors have burned customers with volatile pricing, TSMC is positioning itself as the stable, if pricey, foundation of the global AI build-out.
For consumers, the ripple effects are already visible elsewhere in tech. Samsung is already signaling price hikes on flagship smartphones, and chip shortages have historically pushed component costs across the board. Even older processor generations have seen pricing volatility as foundry capacity gets rationed toward newer, more profitable nodes. Our pricing tracker for AMD’s Ryzen 5000 series shows how scarcity continues to distort retail markets when wafers are diverted to AI accelerators.
What is striking about Wei’s comments is the absence of hedging. There is no talk of an AI winter, no caution about customer overbuild, no mention of orders pausing after a frenetic 2025. The message was consistent: the industry needs more silicon than TSMC can currently print, and the gap will persist through 2027 and beyond. For a company that famously under-promises and over-delivers, that kind of directness is its own signal.
If the TrendForce numbers hold, TSMC’s 3nm wafers could cost major customers hundreds of millions more annually. Yet those same customers will likely pay without public protest. The alternative is delaying products in a market where being six months late to AI means ceding ground permanently. TSMC knows this, and for the first time in years, it is not afraid to say so out loud. The AI boom is not slowing, and the world’s most advanced foundry intends to make sure it profits from every nanometer.
