Taiwan Semiconductor tumbles on weak Q2, delay to Arizona plant
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Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (NYSE:TSM) stock fell more than 5% in early trading on Thursday after the chip maker said second-quarter revenue declined and it offered a weak outlook. 
Second-quarter revenue fell 13.7% year-over-year to $15.68B ( NT$480.84B, -10% Y/Y), while net income declined 23.3% year-over-year to NT$181.80.
"Our second quarter business was impacted by the overall global economic conditions, which dampened the end market demand, and led to customersâ ongoing inventory adjustment," said Taiwan Semi CFO Wendell Huang on the company's earnings call.
TSM â which produces chips for some of the world's largest tech companies including Apple (AAPL), Nvidia (NVDA) and AMD (AMD) â expects a 10% (in US$) decline in revenue this year, according to CEO C.C. Wei. The prior guidance was for a single-digit decline, as per a Bloomberg report.
CFO Wendell Huang added that the company expects Q3 revenue to be between $16.7B and $17.5B, which represents a +9.1% sequential increase at the mid point.
In 2023, the company's gross margin faces challenges from lower capacity utilization. Taiwan Semi also expects its 2023 capital expenditure to be at the lower end of a previously forecast range of $32B to $36B, Wendell Huang noted.
The global foundry is also pushing back the start of production from its new plant being built in Arizona to 2025, from 2024, in part due to insufficient amount of skilled workers required for equipment installation, according to Chairman Mark Liu.
The company has been sending technicians from Taiwan to train the local skilled workers, but for a short period of time the company expects the production of the N4 process technology to be pushed out to 2025, Liu added. The construction of the facility began in April 2021.
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