TSMC to spend up to $28 billion on making next-gen chips in 2021

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) is going all-in on next-gen, with the company planning to spend $28 billion increasing the capacity of its plants -- amid the most demand for its technology ever.

TSMC said during a recent Q4 2020 earnings call that the company will see a 50% increase in capacity investments in 2021 compared to 2020. The demand for chips is at fever pitch -- AMD with countless products (Zen 3 + RDNA 2 + EPYC + Ryzen Threadripper) as well as the semi-custom designs for the Sony PS5 and Microsoft Xbox Series X/S products, new chips from Intel, chips for Apple, chips for Qualcomm, and chips for many of the world's largest tech companies.

Brian Bandsma, a portfolio manager at Vontobel Asset Management said: "Usually, historically, when you see TSMC's capital expenditure numbers, it's a good leading indicator of how they are seeing demand. They are very conservative about their capital expenditures number. They're not going to be overly aggressive".

Mehdi Hosseini, a senior analyst at Susquehanna Financial Group said on CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia": "We have been expecting a flattish revenue guide with a double-digit revenue growth target for the whole year. But it was the capex that surprised and it was well above expectation".

• Read more: TSMC rumored to make Intel 5nm CPUs in 2021, high-end 3nm CPUs in 2022