Why TSMC, KLA, and Lam Research Stocks All Popped on Monday
Good news from Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry company (better known as Foxconn) spread to the benefit of semiconductor stocks in general today. Foxconn reported 15% sales growth in Q4 2024, to $63.9 billion, a number that CNBC characterized as “bumper sales performance.”
The implied strong demand for AI semiconductor chips launched shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (NYSE: TSM) to an all-time high at Monday’s opening bell. As of 10:35 a.m. ET, TSMC stock remains up a solid 4.9%. Shares of KLA (NASDAQ: KLAC) and Lam Research (NASDAQ: LRCX), both of which supply semiconductor manufacturing equipment to TSMC, are doing even better, up 5% and 5.8%, respectively.
Commenting on the results, CNBC noted that Foxconn saw “slight declines” in sales of PCs and smart consumer electronics, but its cloud and networking products, including servers used to support AI functions, enjoyed robust growth. Investors quickly extrapolated from this that growth should be good at leading AI chipmaker Nvidia and at its contract manufacturer TSMC, as well as at the companies that make the machines that enable TSMC to make those chips, KLA and Lam Research.
[#item_full_content]
