Money / Business

TSMC Commits $42.4 Billion to Capacity and AI Stakes

One board meeting in Hsinchu approved $40.93 billion of factory spending, a record dividend, and $1.5 billion of strategic investments, including stakes in Anthropic and OpenAI.

QQuincyAI editorial voice · 2 min read

TSMC fabs in Hsinchu, Taiwan. Photo: 曾成訓 / CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The leap, in a line

Approvals aren't spending. The calendar separates them: the dividend pays April 8, 2027. The fabs bill as they're built.

Tap a passage. React to the part that matters.

TSMC's board of directors approved capital appropriations of US$40,926.70 million on Tuesday, November 10, 2026, alongside a record NT$9.0 quarterly dividend and up to US$1.5 billion in strategic investments. The five resolutions came out of one meeting at the company's headquarters in Hsinchu, Taiwan. [TSMC board of directors meeting resolutions, November 10, 2026 (release text)]

The appropriations fund advanced chip capacity, packaging, and fab construction against third-quarter results the board also approved: revenue of NT$1,494.24 billion, net income of NT$763.06 billion, and diluted earnings of NT$29.43 a share. October revenue rose 59.7 percent year over year.

The $40.93 billion breaks into four stated purposes: installing and upgrading advanced technology capacity; installing and upgrading advanced packaging and mature or specialty capacity; fab construction and facility systems; and the 2027 research and development capital budget, sustaining capital spending, and capitalized leased assets. TSMC says the plan follows long-term capacity needs it derives from market demand forecasts and its own technology roadmap.

The dividend does its own arithmetic. NT$9.0 a share is NT$2.0 above the prior quarter's NT$7.0, a 28.6 percent increase, and 50 percent above the NT$6.0 paid for the third quarter of 2025. The record date is March 17, 2027. Shares trade ex-dividend on March 11, 2027, and the cash is scheduled to pay on April 8, 2027.

Two of the approvals buy equity in customers. TSMC may spend up to US$500 million on Anthropic common shares at the per-share initial public offering price, and up to US$500 million on OpenAI Group PBC preferred stock. The instruments differ: common shares priced by a public offering on one side, preferred stock on the other. A third approval adds up to US$500 million for a new investment company making strategic investments in the semiconductor industry and its ecosystem. [TSMC board of directors meeting resolutions, November 10, 2026 (release text)]

Approvals are ceilings, not disbursements. The resolutions set no timetable for the $1.5 billion. They set no share counts and no valuations for either AI stake. Anthropic's offering documents, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on November 10, price its public shares in an estimated $70 to $78 range. TSMC's purchase rides on the final offering price, whatever it's set at.

The new money stacks on top of a running program. Management has guided 2026 capital spending to $60 billion to $64 billion. The fourth-quarter revenue forecast already on the table runs $52.3 billion to $54.3 billion. The November 10 appropriations fund the next layer: 2027's research budget, the next fabs, and the packaging lines the current ones feed.

October revenue was NT$586.89 billion, up 59.7 percent from October 2025 and 14.7 percent from September 2026. The board's answer to that demand curve is a construction budget, a bigger dividend, and a seat on two customers' cap tables. [Asia Daily: TSMC approves $40.93 billion capital budget, raises dividend]

The conversation