TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) said on Thursday it expected its third-quarter revenue to rise as much as 34 percent, driven by robust demand for semiconductors amid a boom in artificial intelligence technologies, while reporting a better-than-expected second-quarter profit.

TSMC’s net profit for the April-June period rose to NT$247.8 billion (6.95 billion euros) from NT$181.8 billion last year, above analysts’ expectations of NT$238.8 billion, according to an LSEG estimate.

The world’s largest semiconductor maker and a major supplier to Apple and Nvidia has benefited from the AI ​​boom, which has helped it weather the pandemic-induced weakening of demand for electronics.

“As we approach the third quarter of 2024, we expect our business to be supported by strong smartphone and AI-related demand for our leading processing technologies,” Wendell Huang, chief financial officer, said in a press conference.

Second-quarter revenue rose 33 percent to $20.8 billion, beating TSMC’s forecast of between $19.6 billion and $20.4 billion.

For the current quarter, revenue is expected to be between $22.4 billion and $23.2 billion, compared with $17.3 billion in the previous quarter, the company said at the conference.

Taipei-listed shares of TSMC have been pummeled in the past two days after comments by U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump that Taiwan “took about 100% of our chip business” and should pay the United States for its defense.

Asked during the earnings call, Chief Executive CC Wei said “no” when asked whether TSMC was considering a joint venture following Donald Trump’s comments.

The company’s shares closed down 2.4% on Thursday.

(Reporting by Yimou Lee, Ben Blanchard and Faith Hung; with contributions by James Pomfret; by Dimitri Rhodes; editing by Augustin Turpin)

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