TSMC's revenue & profits over time

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Welcome back to The Pulse, where we dive into interesting AI stories and trends backed by data, all presented through simple visuals.

> Q4 revenue +20% YoY & profit +35% YoY beat expectations; AI/HPC drove upside up with HPC (AI+5G) at 55% of sales vs 32% smartphones

> 2026 capex guided $52-56B (vs $40.9B in 2025), elevated for AI-driven capacity expansion & Q1 '26 revenue guidance at $34.6-35.8B

> market cap $1.4T & shares up on sustained AI demand

> TSMC expanding globally to Japan, Europe, Arizona, with Arizona fast-tracked for advanced nodes + geopolitics

> the AI chip startup to raise another ~$1B in new funding round

> recently signed multi-year compute deal with OpenAI worth $10B+ to supply up to 750MW through 2028

> OpenAI explored partnership in 2017 & is actively diversifying away from NVIDIA dependence (Broadcom custom chip, AMD MI450)

> Cerebras founded 2015; total funding $1.8B excluding new capital

> 2024 IPO filing showed majority revenue from single customer (G42)

> IPO withdrawn 2025, raised $1.1B privately at $8.1B val & going ahead with IPO this year

> signed new deals with IBM, Meta & now OpenAI - gaining larger semiconductor share

> data centers ~1.5% of global electricity use in 2024, +12% growth over last five years

> overall energy hiring peaked 2024 (+34% YoY); 2025 nearly matched & still ~30% above pre-ChatGPT era

> hiring concentrated in already scarce operational roles: energy procurement, power markets, grid interface, energy strategy

> also growing demand for project managers, construction managers, land acquisition roles (although build-out work increasingly on temporary contracts)

> Big Tech locking power externally via long-term power purchase agreements while building internal energy strategy teams

> internal hires focus on planning + procurement, while construction, land, execution partially outsourced

> also making many power-infra partnerships & selective acquisitions in the energy space