TSMC Q1 2026 Earnings Call: 66.2% Gross Margin and 30%+ Full-Year Growth Guidance Confirmed

TSMC's formal Q1 2026 earnings call on April 16 delivered results that surpassed the company's own guidance at every level. Gross margin reached 66.2% — well above the guided range of 63.0%–65.0% and representing a 390 basis-point sequential improvement. Operating margin hit 58.1%, beating the 54.0%–56.0% guidance range with a 410 basis-point quarter-over-quarter gain. Total Q1 revenue came in at $35.9 billion, exceeding the high end of the $34.6–$35.8 billion guidance range, with a 6.4% sequential increase from Q4 2025.

CEO C.C. Wei upgraded the company's full-year 2026 revenue growth forecast to above 30% in U.S. dollar terms, a step up from prior guidance. The upgrade was underpinned by continued surging demand from Nvidia, Apple, and AMD on TSMC's leading-edge nodes. On the advanced packaging front, Wei confirmed that CoWoS capacity will reach 130,000 wafers per month by late 2026 — nearly quadrupling from late 2024 levels — to eliminate the bottleneck that has constrained Nvidia's Blackwell and upcoming Vera Rubin shipments. TSMC also reiterated its 2026 capital expenditure plan of $52–56 billion, the largest in the company's history, with more than 10% earmarked for advanced packaging.

Wall Street reacted positively to the results. All seven analysts covering TSMC at Visible Alpha carry a Buy rating, and Stefan Chang of Aletheia Capital raised his price target to $600. TSMC shares have climbed more than 20% in 2026 ahead of the earnings call, reflecting investor confidence in the company's unrivaled position as the sole manufacturer capable of producing leading-edge AI chips at scale. With 2nm entering mass production in H2 2026 and Arizona's Fab 4 fully booked through 2027, the structural demand tailwinds remain firmly intact.