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First-quarter revenue slightly ahead of forecasts

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TSMC stock has plummeted so far this year

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Company to report fuller Q1 earnings on April 17

(Recasts and write through)

By Ben Blanchard and Wen-Yee Lee

TAIPEI, April 10 (Reuters) - TSMC , the

world's largest contract chipmaker, said on Thursday that

first-quarter revenue jumped 42%, slightly ahead of a market

consensus, benefiting from the boom in artificial intelligence.

Revenue for January-March came in at T$839.3 billion ($25.6

billion), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co ( TSM ) said in a brief

statement.

That was a tad higher than an LSEG SmartEstimate of T$835.7

billion drawn from 19 analysts and in line with company guidance

of $25 billion to $25.8 billion. It said in February that

revenue was likely to come in at the lower end of that range due

to a $161 million impact from an earthquake in Taiwan in

January.

TSMC will report full first-quarter earnings on April 17,

including an outlook for the current quarter and full year.

The company, whose customers include Apple ( AAPL ) and

Nvidia ( NVDA ), has been one of a major beneficiary of advances

in AI which have more than offset the tapering off of

pandemic-led demand of chips used in consumer electronics like

tablets.

Like other companies, TSMC's shares have plummeted since

U.S. President Donald Trump announced across-the-board import

tariffs last week, though so far semiconductors have not been

included.

Trump's announcement of a tariff pause saw its Taipei-listed

stock climb 9.9% on Thursday, putting this year's losses at

19.7%, in line with the broader index's 17.5% drop.

Taiwan's Foxconn, the world's largest contract

electronics maker and which makes AI servers for Nvidia ( NVDA ), has

also reported bumper sales, logging its highest-ever revenue for

the first quarter.

($1 = 32.8410 Taiwan dollars)