TSM or NVDA: Who Ya Got?

Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing

The Motley Fool

Business, Investing

4.3 • 3.1K Ratings

🗓️ 19 January 2026

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Last week, Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE: TM) put up stellar fourth-quarter numbers, signaling that we've yet to reach peak AI demand. Are we in for another banner year in 2026? Jason Hall, Travis Hoium, and Tim Beyers discuss: - TSM's spectacular Q4 and capex spending plan. - Which company tops the AI value chain: TSM or NVDA. - Good corporate citizens in a nod to companies that exhibit the values espoused by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whom we honor today. Don’t wait! Be sure to get to your local bookstore and pick up a copy of David’s Gardner’s new book — Rule Breaker Investing: How to Pick the Best Stocks of the Future and Build Lasting Wealth. It’s on shelves now; get it before it’s gone! Tickers: Companies discussed: TSM, NVDA, SBGSY, HPE, HPQ Host: Tim Beyers Guests: Jason Hall, Travis Hoium Producer: Anand Chokkavelu Engineer: Dan Boyd Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	investors still can't get enough of AI. You're listening to Motley Fool Money.
0:09.5	Welcome, Fools. I'm your host, Tim Byers, and with me are two top fools. You've heard many times on these airwaves.
0:27.4	Jason Hall and Travis Hoyum. Welcome back, guys, to Motley Fool Money. Is this like your second home?
0:33.1	Many fools love here? You both. It's my third. You guys definitely hear me. Okay, good. Good. Yeah, you hear me every Tuesday with Emily, so that's pretty, pretty regular. It's just a little odd sitting in this guest chair here. Yeah. It's nice, though, Travis, right? It's nice. I'm grateful because, you know, I am also a fan. So thank you guys for being here. Hopefully you're fully caffeinated because we have caffeinated
0:54.5	results here. We are recording this on Friday for the Monday show for the Martin Luther
1:01.6	King Jr. holiday. More on that in our second segment, but we're going to start with Taiwan
1:07.1	Semiconductor because on Thursday, Taiwan Semi reported some pretty stellar fourth quarter numbers.
1:13.8	Revenue jumped 25.5% year over year to 33.73 billion. Gross margin for the quarter was 62.3%. That's
1:23.3	pretty good. Operating margin was 54%. Net profit margin was 48.3%. Those are bonkers numbers.
1:31.0	Also in the fourth quarter, shipment of three nanometer chips ads accounted for 28% of total
1:36.0	wafer revenue. 5 nanometer was 35% and 7 nanometer was 14%. This is important because the most
1:43.6	advanced chips, so nanometer being like really small.
1:47.7	So like at three nanometer, these are the most advanced chips. So like the most advanced chips
1:52.8	are accounting for 77% of total wafer revenue. There is a lot of AI being built. In other words,
1:59.3	at Taiwan semiconductor factories.
2:01.6	And management now expects between $52 billion and $56 billion in capital spending in this year.
2:09.6	So on a run rate basis, and I'm going to go to you first on this, Travis, I think I'm going
2:15.6	to estimate that about 40% of Taiwan semi revenue is going to be spent on capital spending.
2:23.6	This is crazy.
2:24.6	I mean, how long can this go on?
2:26.5	Just what's your reaction to those Taiwan semi numbers?
2:29.5	You know, this can go on for a while, but it really all depends on how long this AI build out lasts.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Motley Fool, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Motley Fool and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.