Taiwan chipmaker TSMC may once again become one of the world’s top ten most valuable stocks, according to a Friday report from Bloomberg. The company saw a nearly 8% jump in stock price following the Lunar New Year holiday, rising in value by US$42 billion on Thursday.
The reporting says the rising stock price is due in part to optimism from investors about artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. TSMC is one of the top hardware manufacturers of chips needed for AI computing. Its total market value on Thursday was about US$575 billion, making it the 13th most valuable company in the world, surpassing the value of Visa Inc. and only US$60 billion away from equalling the value of electric car maker Tesla.
Companies using TSMC’s foundries, including Apple and Nvidia, recently told investors that they expect the next quarter to see strong growth in anticipation of increased demand in computing and smartphone markets.