Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) revealed plans to hike capex by between $10 billion and $14 billion this year, funding a ramp in capacity to meet high demand.

The contract chipmaker earmarked capex of $40 billion to $44 billion compared with $30.4 billion in 2021. It predicted Q1 revenue would be 29 per cent to 33 per cent higher year-on-year, in a range of $16.6 billion to $17.2 billion.

On an earnings call, CEO CC Wei predicted “another strong growth year for TSMC” and forecast the semiconductor market excluding memory chips would grow by around 9 per cent over 2021.

Foundry industry growth is expected to be close to 20 per cent.

Net income in Q4 2021 increased 16.4 per cent to TWD166.2 billion ($6 billion), while consolidated revenue grew 21.2 per cent to TWD438.2 billion. Shipments of 5nm chips accounted for 23 per cent of total wafer revenue and 7nm made up 27 per cent.

CFO Wendell Huang added it expects business in Q1 to be supported by demand for high-performance computing chips, continued recovery in the automotive segment and milder smartphone seasonality than in recent years.

TSMC is a long-time component supplier for top smartphone makers including Samsung and Apple.