14/07/2026

BIZ & FINANCE TUESDAY | JULY 14, 2026

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TSMC achieves record Q2 revenue TAIPEI: TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, reported yesterday second-quarter revenue that rose 36% from a year earlier to a record high on surging interest in artificial intelligence applications. Revenue in the April-June period of this year came in at NT$1.27 trillion (RM161.3 billion), according to Reuters calculations, slightly above a NT$1.264 trillion LSEG SmartEstimate drawn from 20 analysts. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) is a major supplier to companies including Nvidia and Apple. On its last earnings call in April, the company predicted second quarter revenue of between US$39 billion and US$40.2 billion. The company gives its forecast only in US dollars and not Taiwan dollars. For June alone, TSMC reported that revenue rose 67.9% year-on-year to NT$442.68 billion, which was up 6.2% compared with the previous month. The data was originally due last Friday, but it was delayed due to the impending arrival of Typhoon Bavi, which shut financial markets in Taipei that day. TSMC, Asia’s most valuable publicly listed company with a market capitalisation of US$1.955 trillion, did not provide any details or forward guidance in its brief revenue statement. It is scheduled to report second-quarter earnings on Thursday, when it will also update its outlook and plans for the current quarter and the rest of the year. TSMC is expected to report a 58.8% on-year rise in second-quarter net profit, according to an LSEG SmartEstimate. TSMC’s Taipei-listed shares closed up 1% yesterday ahead of the release of the sales data. The broader market closed flat. The company’s shares have risen 57% so far this year, in line with the broader market. – Reuters Nippon Paint offers €7.5b for AkzoNobel decorative paints unit TOKYO: AkzoNobel has received multiple proposals from Nippon Paint to buy its decorative paints business valuing the business at €7.5 billion (RM34.95 billion), it said yesterday, a month after Nippon Paint withdrew an offer to buy the whole firm along with US-based Sherwin-Williams for €12.5 billion. AkzoNobel, which makes the Dulux brand of paints, rejected Nippon Paint and Sherwin Williams’ earlier offer in May, pushing ahead instead with its plan to merge with US coatings maker Axalta. Paint makers are pursuing mergers to save money amid rising costs, intense competition, and uncertainty sparked by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imported goods. In yesterday’s statement, AkzoNobel said its board continues to recommend the Axalta merger and that Nippon Paint’s offer significantly undervalues its decorative paints business. Nippon Paint’s offers are conditional and non binding, AkzoNobel said, adding that its merger agreement with Axalta restricts it from any engagement with Nippon Paint. No specific matters regarding the acquisition have been decided, Nippon Paint said in a statement earlier yesterday. The approach was first reported by Bloomberg News on Sunday. In May, AkzoNobel said Nippon Paint and Sherwin-Williams’ offer to take over the entire firm undervalued its business, lacked certainty on regulatory clearances and would split the company between two suitors. Merging with Axalta would bring cost savings of US$600 million (RM2.44 billion) and enable the combined entity to focus more on coatings, which are more resilient in a consumer downturn than decorative paints, chief executive Greg Poux-Guillaume said in an interview with Reuters in 2025. AkzoNobel and Axalta are set to hold shareholder meetings to vote on the Axalta tie up on Aug 5. – Reuters

Stocks skid, oil surges as Gulf conflict flares anew

sank 8.95%, having already lost almost 8% last week, as leveraged bets on semiconductor shares came under pressure. The market has emerged as a key global barometer for chip-sector sentiment and further losses could ripple out more broadly. The spike in oil pushed two-year Treasury yields to their highest since February 2025 at 4.2393%, while Fed fund futures implied 39 basis points of policy tightening by the end of the year. The dollar index was up 0.05% at 101.13, with the euro rising 0.05% to $1.1394. The greenback added 0.24% on the yen to 162.12, regaining some of the ground lost on Friday. In commodity markets, the rise in yields weighed on non-interest bearing gold, which slipped 1.5% to about $4,060 an ounce. – Reuters

for the first time in his new role. Brent crude futures up US$1.67, or 2.2%, to US$77.68 at 0955 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate crude was up US$1.59, or 2.23%, to US$73.00 a barrel. US officials said about 20 vessels had been escorted through the strait in the previous 24 hours, though ship tracking sites showed little traffic moving. Inflation figures for June today could show some cooling in the headline rate of 4.2% as petrol prices decline, though some of that will reverse now that oil is rising anew. MSCI’s main world stocks index fell 0.38%. Europe’s STOXX 600 was down 0.12%, with tech stocks falling 1.1%. Nasdaq futures dropped 1.2% and S&P 500 futures were down 0.4%. Japan’s Nikkei fell 1.9%. South Korea’s formerly red-hot Kospi

LONDON: and government bond yields rose yesterday as investors grappled with concerns over a fresh escalation in the Middle East conflict and valuations in AI-related stocks. US and Iranian forces renewed exchanges of heavy missile and drone assaults, with Tehran saying it had again closed the vital Strait of Hormuz. The dollar rose with bond yields as investors increased the odds of a hike in interest rates from the US Federal Reserve and other central banks, just a day before chair Kevin Warsh is due to face Congress o South Korea’s formerly red-hot Kospi sinks 8.95% Global stocks fell

AI tax windfall brings ‘golden window for investment’ SEOUL: South Korea will use a tax revenue windfall from artificial intelligence (AI) chipmakers as a strategic source of invest ment, President Lee Jae Myung said yesterday, describing a “golden window” of opportunity. revenues, from chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK hynix in particular, to fund public infrastructure projects. “These revenues are a valuable national resource that should be invested during the golden window when the global race for AI leadership is being decided,” Lee said. draw up next year’s budget at a record-high scale of 800 trillion won”, he said, an increase of more than 10% from this year’s budget. Park said the spending plan would be financed through higher tax receipts and expenditure cuts. The proposed budget compares with this year’s 727.9 trillion won spending plan, excluding supplementary budgets. SAY ‘CHEESE’ ... An employee turns a wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese inside Credito Emiliano’s Magazzini Generali delle Tagliate cheese vault, amid a 30% surge in daily power use during the peak of the recent heatwaves. The facility stores the ageing wheels of cheese as collateral for low interest loans to dairies, in Montecavolo di Quattro Castella, Italy. – REUTERSPIC

Global demand for advanced memory chips used in AI data centres has helped South Korea’s semiconductor giants post record profits this year, boosting economic growth. The boom has also strengthened workers’ demands for higher pay, with Samsung Electronics avoiding a major strike in May after reaching an agreement on bonuses. “Driven by an unprecedented semiconductor boom fuelled by the AI revolution, we expect to see additional tax revenues on a scale never experienced before,” Lee said at a policy meeting with Cabinet members. His comments reflect plans previously outlined by his office to use the excess tax

The tax windfall will be used to establish a “future response fund” to concentrate investment in “future industries, youth, regional development, and education”, he added, without giving further details. Through such mechanisms, the govern ment wants to ensure the benefits of the fast evolving AI industry are shared by all, he said. Budget Minister Park Hong-keun told the meeting that South Korea was expected to reap tax revenue of at least 500 trillion won (RM1.36 trillion) next year, above an earlier estimate of 412 trillion won. Against that backdrop, his ministry “will

He said the government would seek to restructure about 50 trillion won in spending, twice the level of the previous year, through a review of discretionary and mandatory expenditures and cuts to underperforming programmes. South Korea plans to launch a Future Response Fund as a strategic investment platform, setting aside tax revenue that exceeds long-term trends and investing it in four areas: youth, growth engines, regions and talent, the government said. – AFP, Reuters