The chip factory the whole stack runs through took in NT$514.81bn in August

TSMC's August revenue is approximately 53.3 percent above a year earlier, and it is the first TSMC figure on this site.

10 September 2026 · 5 min read

What happened

TSMC is a Taiwanese chip manufacturer. Once a month it publishes how much money it took in. On 10 September it filed its August figure with the US securities regulator: approximately 514.81 billion Taiwan dollars, 10.1 percent more than July and 53.3 percent more than August 2025. Revenue for January to August was 3,386.87 billion Taiwan dollars, 39.3 percent above the same eight months of 2025.

TSMC's English filing does not use the word record. Taiwan's Central News Agency, reporting TSMC's statement, says August "reached a record high" and gives a conversion of 16.32 billion US dollars. The Taipei paper udn says it is the first month above 500 billion Taiwan dollars, and that July's 467.58 billion was the record at the time. TSMC's own table shows August cleared July by 47.23 billion Taiwan dollars, our arithmetic from the two figures in the filing.

Why it matters

On this site, TSMC is the entity every layer above silicon points to, and until today it had no number of its own. Two other August figures from the region were already here. Taiwan as a whole exported 82.4 billion US dollars of goods in August, its largest month on record, 41.0 percent above a year earlier. Korea's chip exports for the month reached 46.65 billion US dollars, up 209.0 percent. And Foxconn reported August revenue of 921.8 billion Taiwan dollars on 5 September, 51.98 percent above a year earlier. TSMC's print now sits beside all three, and it moved by more than Taiwan's exports and by about the same as Foxconn's month.

A worked example. CNA adds TSMC's July and August together and gets 982.386 billion Taiwan dollars for the first two months of the quarter. TSMC's guidance for the whole quarter, as CNA restates it, is 44.6 to 45.8 billion US dollars at an assumed rate of 32 Taiwan dollars per US dollar. At that rate the two months come to roughly 30.7 billion US dollars, our arithmetic, which leaves September needing something in the region of 13.9 to 15.1 billion to land inside the range. That is a smaller month than August, not a larger one. So the company is running ahead of the pace its own forecast implies, if the exchange rate holds. That sentence is our reading of two sourced figures, not a company statement.

What would change it, and when

The next data points are TSMC's September revenue and its third-quarter results, which carry margins and guidance; the filing gives no dates for either. Any change in the US dollar against the Taiwan dollar shifts the US dollar version of these numbers without changing what was made. TrendForce, an analyst firm, estimated that TSMC took 72.5 percent of the revenue of the ten largest foundries in the second quarter; that is an estimate, not a measurement, and it is the number to watch if any customer ever moves volume elsewhere.

What we do not know

The filing does not say which chips or which customers drove the month, whether the increase came from more wafers or higher prices, or what the margin on it was. We could not read TSMC's own website, which returned an access block to this environment, so we do not know whether TSMC's Chinese-language release uses the word record itself; CNA attributes it to TSMC's statement. And we do not know how much of the year over year move is exchange rate.

What this changes for you

Nothing today. A factory's monthly receipt is not a price you pay. What it tells you is that the company that makes the processors behind the AI tools people use reported more revenue than in any month before, by CNA's and udn's account, and has not yet run out of room to grow the number.

Sources

Everything above is written from these. Each line says what that document proves.

1. sec.gov: TSMC's own 6-K filed with the SEC on 10 September 2026: the NT$514.81bn figure, the 10.1 and 53.3 percent moves, the January to August total, and the table with July's 467,580.
2. focustaiwan.tw: Central News Agency, 10 September: attributes "record high" to TSMC's statement, gives the US$16.32bn conversion, the July plus August sum of NT$982.386bn and restates the US$44.6bn to 45.8bn quarterly guidance at NT$32.
3. udn.com: udn, 10 September: August is the first month above NT$500bn; July's NT$467.58bn was the record at the time.
4. news.cnyes.com: cnyes on the Ministry of Finance's August trade release: the US$82.4bn export figure already on the site.
5. trendforce.com: TrendForce, 9 September: an analyst estimate of TSMC's 72.5 percent share among the top ten foundries in the second quarter. An estimate, not a measurement.