Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (NYSE:TSM) shares surged by their most since April on Monday, as the world’s largest contract chipmaker entered the new year riding a wave of relentless optimism over artificial intelligence demand.
Shares of the primary manufacturer for Nvidia Corp. and Apple jumped as much as 6.9% to reach a fresh record high in Taipei.
The rally was ignited by Goldman Sachs Group, which raised its price target for TSMC by 35% to NT$2,330, signaling expectations for another year of "structural growth" fueled by the exponential consumption of AI computing power.
The surge propelled Taiwan’s benchmark Taiex index above the 30,000-point milestone for the first time in history.
Juan Ching-hwa, Taiwan’s deputy finance minister, noted that such a level “seemed almost impossible” until recently, though he expressed hopes for a more balanced market structure given TSMC’s massive weighting.
In a report to clients, Goldman Sachs analysts led by Bruce Lu described AI as a “multi-year growth engine” for the Hsinchu-based firm.
The bank projects that TSMC will deploy over $150 billion in capital expenditures between 2026 and 2028 to expand capacity and maintain its lead in 2nm and 3nm processes.