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TAIPEI (Reuters) -TSMC, the world's biggest producer of advanced AI chips, forecast fourth-quarter revenue up by as much as 24% as it rides an AI boom that saw it post its sixth consecutive quarter of double-digit profit growth, beating estimates. TSMC said it expects robust artificial intelligence demand to continue and maintained its forecast for capital spending at up to $42 billion for 2025, although it flagged a potential business impact from U.S. trade tariffs and currency moves. The Taiwan company, whose customers include Nvidia and Apple, posted a 39.1% jump in third-quarter net profit and said it would be prudent in its business planning going into 2026. Benefiting from surging demand for advanced chips used in AI applications, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co said net profit for July-September climbed to T$452.3 billion ($14.76 billion). That was well ahead of a T$417.7 billion LSEG SmartEstimate drawn from 20 analysts. SmartEstimates are weighted toward forecasts from analysts who are more consistently accurate. TSMC said it believes the AI boom is strengthening and demand is stronger than what it had anticipated three months ago as it forecast next year to remain healthy due to robust demand for AI-related products. Trump's trade policies and threats to put tariffs on semiconductors have created uncertainty for the global chip industry and TSMC. TSMC announced plans for a $100 billion U.S. investment with Trump at the White House in March, on top of $65 billion pledged for three plants in the state of Arizona, one of which is up and running. On Wednesday, top semiconductor equipment maker ASML, for which TSMC is a major customer, said third-quarter bookings beat market forecasts but that it expected a significant fall in demand from China next year. Samsung Electronics said on Tuesday it expected its biggest quarterly profit in over three years, also thanks to the AI boom. Taiwan-listed shares in TSMC have risen 38% so far this year, largely brushing off concerns about tariffs, and ahead of the 20% rise for the broader market. ($1 = 30.6450 Taiwan dollars) (Reporting by Wen-Yee Lee, Faith Hung and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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By Wen-Yee Lee, Faith Hung and Ben Blanchard TAIPEI (Reuters) -TSMC, the world's biggest producer of advanced chips, raised its full-year revenue forecast on Thursday on a bullish outlook for spending on artificial intelligence, after posting a record profit that blew past market estimates. The strong results underscore the continued faith in AI, brushing off at least for now concerns about a bubble. TSMC said it expects robust artificial intelligence demand to continue, as it raised its 2025 revenue guidance to mid-30% growth in U.S. dollar terms from around 30%, and maintained its forecast for capital spending at up to $42 billion for 2025. "AI demand actually continues to be very strong – more strong than we thought three months ago," CEO C.C. Wei told an earnings call. "We are also happy to see continuous strong outlook from our customers," he added. "In addition, we directly receive very strong signals from our customers' customers requesting the capacity to support their business. Thus, our conviction in the AI megatrend is strengthening." There has been a flurry of mega deals between AI firms and chipmakers, notably by OpenAI with Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom, in the past month or so to build $1 trillion or more in data centre capacity. That portends more demand for chips, which make up a significant portion of the cost of the data centres. Nvidia, AMD and Broadcom all rely on TSMC for chip production. The multi-billion dollar investment announcements have raised concerns about the formation of a bubble reminiscent of the dotcom boom and bust, with securities investors on guard for signals that demand is tailing off or that the massive spending is not paying off as anticipated. Recent company announcements indicate demand is resilient. The head of Australia's Macquarie Asset Management (MAM), which sold its Aligned Data Centers business in a deal worth $40 billion, said on Thursday the sale was not a sign the global data centre boom had peaked, while ABB's big increase in orders in the United States during the third quarter was due to demand from areas like data centres being built for AI. PROFIT BEATS ESTIMATES Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, whose customers also include iPhone maker Apple, posted a 39.1% jump in third-quarter net profit and said it would be prudent in its business planning going into 2026. Benefiting from surging demand for advanced chips used in AI applications, TSMC said net profit for July-September climbed to T$452.3 billion ($14.76 billion). That was well ahead of a T$417.7 billion LSEG SmartEstimate drawn from 20 analysts. SmartEstimates are weighted toward forecasts from analysts who are more consistently accurate. "We are still very comfortable that the demand on leading-edge semiconductors is real. And as I continue to say that we look at all the demand and look at our capacity expansion, TSMC needs to work very hard to narrow the gap," Wei said, referring to supply and demand. Trump's trade policies and threats to put tariffs on semiconductors have created uncertainty for the global chip industry and TSMC. Still, Wei said even if the China market was "not available" to the company because of U.S. restrictions, then "I still think the AI's growth will be very dramatic". TSMC announced plans for a $100 billion U.S. investment with Trump at the White House in March, on top of $65 billion pledged for three plants in the state of Arizona, one of which is up and running. On Wednesday, top semiconductor equipment maker ASML, for which TSMC is a major customer, said third-quarter bookings beat market forecasts but that it expected a significant fall in demand from China next year. Samsung Electronics said on Tuesday it expected its biggest quarterly profit in over three years, also thanks to the AI boom. Taiwan-listed shares in TSMC have risen 38% so far this year, largely brushing off concerns about tariffs, and ahead of the 20% rise for the broader market. ($1 = 30.6450 Taiwan dollars) (Reporting by Wen-Yee Lee, Faith Hung and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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By Scott Murdoch SYDNEY (Reuters) -The head of Australia's Macquarie Asset Management (MAM), which sold its Aligned Data Centers business in a deal worth $40 billion, said on Thursday the sale was not a sign the global data centre boom had peaked. Aligned emerged as one of the world's largest data centre operators during the seven years it was owned by MAM, the funds management arm of investment bank Macquarie Group. MAM head Ben Way said the decision to sell to investors including BlackRock, Microsoft and Nvidia, was not a warning sign for the sector or AI. "We don't own businesses in perpetuity, we have owned this for seven years and it's at a great spot to exit and there's clearly massive demand to exit," Way told Reuters in a telephone interview. As global companies ramp up investment in data centres and increase advanced chip purchases, driving up valuations of tech firms from OpenAI to Nvidia, fears are also growing that the spending spree could create a bubble. Major tech companies including Alphabet, Amazon.com, Meta, Microsoft and CoreWeave are expected to spend $400 billion on AI infrastructure this year, according to Morgan Stanley. Aligned operates 5 GW of current and planned data centre capacity and MAM said the $40 billion price tag was Aligned's enterprise value. The firm did not provide a breakdown of the equity and debt components. MAM announced on October 7 it would invest up to $5 billion in a partnership with Applied Digital to help fund the company's first two high-performance computing data centre developments. "It's not that we don't think it's a good thematic, not that we don't believe in the thematic, it's not that we don't think we can continue to make money," Way said, referring to the Aligned sale. "There's a long way to go here and that's because the world has a long way to digitalise and we're only just at the beginning," Way said. "We're at the precipice of AI endeavour, certainly not at the end." MAM funds held about 50% of Aligned and its co-investors had a further 20%. The deal was the largest ever private equity exit for the Australian fund manager. MAM also has investments in Bohao Internet Data Service, Hanam Data Centre, Netrality Data Centers and VIRTUS, which holds assets in the U.S., UK, China and South Korea, the company said. Macquarie Group shares rose 5.13% on Thursday to A$229, the highest since July. The bank's gain well outpaced the 0.9% increase in S&P/ASX200. (Reporting by Scott Murdoch; Editing by Kate Mayberry)

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By Scott Murdoch SYDNEY (Reuters) -The head of Australia's Macquarie Asset Management (MAM), which sold its Aligned Data Centers business in a deal worth $40 billion, said on Thursday the sale was not a sign the global data centre boom had peaked. Aligned emerged as one of the world's largest data centre operators during the seven years it was owned by MAM, the funds management arm of investment bank Macquarie Group. MAM head Ben Way said the decision to sell to investors including BlackRock, Microsoft and Nvidia, was not a warning sign for the sector or AI. "We don't own businesses in perpetuity, we have owned this for seven years and it's at a great spot to exit and there's clearly massive demand to exit," Way told Reuters in a telephone interview. As global companies ramp up investment in data centres and increase advanced chip purchases, driving up valuations of tech firms from OpenAI to Nvidia, fears are also growing that the spending spree could create a bubble. Major tech companies including Alphabet, Amazon.com, Meta, Microsoft and CoreWeave are expected to spend $400 billion on AI infrastructure this year, according to Morgan Stanley. Aligned operates 5 GW of current and planned data centre capacity and MAM said the $40 billion price tag was Aligned's enterprise value. The firm did not provide a breakdown of the equity and debt components. MAM announced on October 7 it would invest up to $5 billion in a partnership with Applied Digital to help fund the company's first two high-performance computing data centre developments. "It's not that we don't think it's a good thematic, not that we don't believe in the thematic, it's not that we don't think we can continue to make money," Way said, referring to the Aligned sale. "There's a long way to go here and that's because the world has a long way to digitalise and we're only just at the beginning," Way said. "We're at the precipice of AI endeavour, certainly not at the end." MAM funds held about 50% of Aligned and its co-investors had a further 20%. The deal was the largest ever private equity exit for the Australian fund manager. MAM also has investments in Bohao Internet Data Service, Hanam Data Centre, Netrality Data Centers and VIRTUS, which holds assets in the U.S., UK, China and South Korea, the company said. Macquarie Group shares rose 5.13% on Thursday to A$229, the highest since July. The bank's gain well outpaced the 0.9% increase in S&P/ASX200. (Reporting by Scott Murdoch; Editing by Kate Mayberry)

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By Elizabeth Howcroft and Marc Jones PARIS/LONDON (Reuters) -There are "significant gaps" in countries' attempts to regulate fast-growing crypto markets, which could potentially harm financial stability, the G20's risk watchdog warned on Thursday. The Financial Stability Board (FSB), a body founded in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, made a series of recommendations on rules for crypto in 2023, to try to bring it in line with the mainstream financial sector. In Thursday's review, it said while some progress had been made, international implementation and coordination of rules remained too "fragmented, inconsistent, and insufficient to address the global nature of crypto-asset markets". Financial stability risks remain "limited at present" it assessed, but they are now rising with the surge in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies having doubled the value of the global crypto market to $4 trillion over the last year. "This is consequential," FSB secretary general John Schindler told Reuters, describing the concerns raised in the review. "These crypto assets can move across borders very easily, much more easily than other financial assets." STABLECOIN RULES LACKING This year's surge in the value of the crypto market has come against a backdrop of U.S. President Donald Trump's pro-crypto stance. Schindler said there was a need for close monitoring as crypto becomes increasingly connected with the traditional financial system and stablecoins – cryptocurrencies pegged to the dollar for the most part – become more widely used. One of the key concerns flagged by the FSB's report was that hardly any countries have complete regulatory frameworks for stablecoins yet. While still small in comparison to the bitcoin-dominated cryptocurrency markets, the market for stablecoins has grown by almost three-quarters over the last year to just under $290 billion, a trajectory expected to continue with U.S. rules on them now in place The FSB's report reviewed 29 jurisdictions' implementation of crypto and stablecoin recommendations, including the U.S., EU, Hong Kong and the UK, although the U.S. only participated in the stablecoin aspect. El Salvador, where the world's largest stablecoin, Tether, is based did not take part, however. Schindler said the latest review had still been worthwhile even without El Salvador's input given the FSB was already aware of the risks, but stressed the need for better global cooperation and coordination from all jurisdictions going forward. "We can all put in place frameworks, but if there are people who are not cooperating and helping each other, it's just going to be really challenging because these things just they don't observe borders," he said. RISKS 'LIMITED AT PRESENT' BUT GROWING Global rulemakers were jolted in action by the collapse of crypto exchange FTX and demise of TerraUSD/Luna coins in 2022. There has been major jitters over the last week too, with the largest crypto crash in history on Friday triggering almost $20 billion of liquidations in the market. The FSB's report laid out a list of eight recommendations for jurisdictions to speed up the implementation of comprehensive and globally consistent rules and for better cross-border cooperation and coordination. They follow similar concerns raised by the European Union's securities watchdog in April that even small markets can be the source of bigger problems in the financial system. Even if countries have their own regulatory regimes, they can still be impacted by the activities of crypto companies who are headquartered offshore, Schindler said. (Reporting by Elizabeth Howcroft in Paris and Marc Jones in London; Editing by Louise Heavens)

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