Despite the comment above, TSMC still issued much better guidance than expected for the first quarter. It forecasts revenue of $25 billion to $25.8 billion, which would be a sequential decline, but was well ahead of analysts' consensus estimate of $23.9 billion. It also expects operating margin to remain strong, in the 46.5% to 48.5% range.

Taiwan Semiconductor stock is higher Thursday after the chip manufacturer beat expectations for its fourth quarter and issued a strong outlook. Here's what you need to know.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co logged record quarterly profit on Thursday and said it expects robust revenue growth in the first three months of the year as demand surges for chips used in artificial intelligence processing.