: TSMC expects capital spending to come in near low end of forecast, close to $32 billion

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. TSM expects capital spending to come in at the low end of its outlook as smartphone demand dries up, according to media reports Tuesday. Bloomberg reported that TSMC Chairman Mark Liu told reporters after the third-party fab’s annual shareholder meeting that he expects capital spending to come in at the lower end of its $32 billion to $36 billion range for the year. The third-party chip fabricator, or “fab” — industry parlance for the high-tech factories where billions of transistors are etched onto silicon wafers to make chips — manufactures the chips designed by Apple Inc. AAPL , Nvidia Corp. NVDA , and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD among many chip makers that do not maintain their own fabs like Intel Corp. INTC. Back in April, TSMC trimmed its outlook but kept its capex forecast intact. American depositary receipts of TSMC were last up 1.8% at $99.82, compared with a 0.2% rise on the S&P 500 index SPX .

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