On Thursday, October 15, 2026, TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) presented its financial results for the third quarter of the year. Among other things, management addressed the question of price adjustments for AI accelerators and advanced packaging. What came out of it? Confirmation that demand for CPUs (central processing units) built for agentic artificial intelligence keeps growing.

The consequence is that advanced packaging capacity has become critical to getting chips shipped at all. Wafer production has to be planned in parallel, since any constraint there could feed through to delivery times. That is precisely why the company has strengthened its partnerships with assembly and test providers including ASE, SPIL, Powertech, Amkor, GlobalFoundries and Vanguard International Semiconductor.

CPU demand is rising with agentic AI

TSMC’s bargaining power stems first of all from demand for advanced manufacturing processes, from the availability of production capacity, from process maturity, and from the cost to customers of switching suppliers.

TSMC chairman and CEO C.C. Wei also said that AI demand remains extremely high. The company has observed growth in AI-related CPU demand in particular, and for that reason the sector leader has folded the main relevant factors into its own supply and demand assessments.

What does that mean in practice? TSMC will continue to monitor the different chip types and product mixes as it plans future capacity. Given the expansion of AI compute from AI accelerators to CPUs and other data center chips, demand for advanced processes could rise as well. For the end consumer, the consequence could be higher prices for PCs and smartphones.

What TSMC earned

TSMC’s gross margin in the third quarter of 2026 came in at 66.4%, down 1.3 percentage points from the previous quarter. The company expects a gross margin between 65% and 67% in the fourth quarter, with a midpoint of 66%.

A key role will be played by the company’s expansion abroad, a central plank in winning still more orders and meeting customers’ regional production requirements. The new plants that will be built still have to work through their investment and ramp-up phases.

For customers, continued swings in foundry prices will weigh on the cost of manufacturing devices and, as a result, on the list price on the shelf. That is true above all for products from companies with thinner profit margins and less bargaining power. Big Tech, by contrast, could absorb part of the increase through product diversification or long-term supply agreements.

Editor’s note

This article was originally published in Italian on money.it by Pasquale Conte on October 16, 2026 as «TSMC alza il velo sui prezzi e conferma che l’AI agentica fa impennare la domanda di CPU». It has been translated and adapted for an international audience by the Money.it International desk.