In mid-2022, Taiwan Semiconductor was trading at $63 a share and most investors wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole.
The worry was Taiwan. Always Taiwan.
The idea that China could move on the island at any moment and vaporise the company… and your position… overnight.
So the stock sat ignored, while the business itself just kept printing money.
I bought it anyway...
(Partly because I used to live in Taiwan… and trust me when I say that far more Americans are worried about a Chinese invasion than the locals are)
Because the fear was about geography, and the business case had nothing to do with geography.
If you’re not aware, TSMC is what's called a contract chip manufacturer… so they don't design their own chips, but they build them for everyone else.
Nvidia sends TSMC the blueprints for its AI processors… and Apple sends the designs for the M-series chips that go in your MacBook.
TSMC runs the factories. And the factories they run are so far ahead of everyone else's that there is, functionally, no alternative.
If you want the most advanced chip on earth, you go to TSMC or you don't get it.
And this morning, they reported Q1 2026 numbers.
Profit up 58%.
Another revenue record…
And most importantly, improved gross margins which are now at 66.2%.
They also raised expectations for the year ahead on continued strong customer demand
Of course in the past 8 weeks the stock has been all over the place because the Middle East conflict has rattled energy markets, and hubbub about a lack of helium… which is a necessary component of advanced chip manufacturing
Good news on that front too, as TSMC’s CFO came out Thursday to say production isn't at risk in the near term, and the stock closed at a new high.
So while the geopolitical hand-wringing continues… and TSMC keeps reporting records.
I've seen this movie before…
And while I was bullish at $63, I'm still bullish now even after 450% gains.
Because the underlying reason to own this company hasn't changed… the world needs more chips than it can currently make, and TSMC is where those chips come from.
This has been one of the biggest no-brainer trades of the past 4 years… and yet many have missed out because of an existential “China risk”
While the smart money has been racking up massive profits…
And if you’d like some of those profits in your account…
This is exactly the type of structural story I'll be walking through at Investormania II next month in Tampa.
3 days left to get your ticket.
Because the three stocks I'm presenting this year sit in the same category as ASML and TSMC… businesses that benefit from AI demand as a structural fact… not a sentiment trade.
Oliver