The main global manufacturer of advanced chips that is used in Artificial Intelligence applications - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is anticipated to report a fifty eight percent leap in fourth-quarter profit on Thursday owing to surging demand.  

The world's biggest contract chipmaker, whose clients comprise Apple and Nvidia, has benefitted from the megatrend towards AI. However, the Taiwanese organization faces headwinds from US government technology restrictions on China and uncertainity regarding  about President-elect Donald Trump's incoming administration, that has threatened broad import tariffs.

Brett Simpson, Arete Research co-founder and senior analyst, said 2025 will be another year where TSMC's growth is largely driven by AI customers.

"From the U.S. government perspective, Arete is optimistic that TSMC can build a good relationship with the new administration particularly given its new fab cluster in Arizona is the biggest foreign direct investment project in the U.S. at present," he added.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is spending billions of dollars on new factories that are set up overseas, and these include $65 Billion on 3 plants in Arizona, although it states that most of the manufacturing will stay in Taiwan.

Edward Chen, chairman of Fubon Financial's securities investment unit, said progress on the Arizona fab and its yield rates, or the percentage of usable chips, would be crucial for the company.

"Additionally, the impact of tariffs to be imposed by the incoming Trump administration on demand remains to be seen," he added.

TSMC is set to report a net profit of T$377.95 billion ($11.41 billion) for the quarter ended December 31, as per a LSEG SmartEstimate drawn from 22 investigators. SmartEstimates give greater weighting to forecasts from analysts who are more consistently accurate.