$Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing(TSM)$ Media, social platforms, news articles, reporting — it's all a joke. Just three days ago the sky was falling, the universe was ending, the blackest days in semis, and now today they've done a complete 180. Suddenly everything is rosy, the outlook is wonderful. Don't listen to any of it, especially the negative.

$Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing(TSM)$ I accumulated around 1,400 shares of TSM over several months in 2021, buying between $100 and $120 a share. Total cost was about $160,000. I was selling puts and the shares would get put to me from time to time. By late 2023, it was pretty much dead money or a losing position. I decided to visit Taiwan to get a firsthand sense of the geopolitical risk that was weighing on the share price. The people I met there didn't seem worried about it. Kind of reminded me of visiting South Korea, where locals don't seem too concerned about North Korea either. Not sure if that's overconfidence on their part, but it was enough to convince me to hold on to my investment. Glad I did. It has more than tripled since the

$Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing(TSM)$ I was thinking back to a discussion we had about using dividends as income, and I compared it to how Warren Buffett capitalized on Coca Cola, bought in the 1970s and still holds. I think the bigger picture was missed there. My view is that chips are the new oil. Technology doesn't advance without them. Building a fab company takes around 10 years, and it's extremely hard for any startup to start from scratch. So I still see TSM as a growth company rather than a value company, and competition isn't an immediate concern. Here's how I look at the numbers: let's assume the stock doubles in 3 years, then 4 years after that, then 6 years after that, and after that it becomes a conventional value company with

$Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing(TSM)$ $Apple(AAPL)$  earnings today. Apple has always been one of TSM's biggest customers — historically either the largest or at least in the top two, depending on the year and product cycle.

$Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing(TSM)$  Just a remark. I have enough shares for my own situation and my cost basis is very low. I'm not looking to add here. But if someone is watching for an entry, this could be one to keep on the radar. You can't time the market, but I think the share price will be much higher 2-3 years out. Tech and markets in general are unpredictable, and these are just my own thoughts, not investment advice. Everyone should do their own research and decide what risks they're comfortable with.

$iShares MSCI South Korea ETF(EWY)$ Japan is saying Korea has gotten a bit too cocky lately. Contract manufacturers in South Korea are raising prices and asking for a premium, almost like they are TSM. That might be true, but the way things are playing out, it looks like market makers could be using this to buy cheap. It looks super scary. Maybe taking the Asian long view and just parking it in an IRA for a year or so makes sense.

$Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing(TSM)$ Went through STX's Q4 2026 earnings transcript even though things got busy tonight. Overall, things look solid. I'm hoping it ends up being one of the few AI names that actually moves higher following earnings.

Market makers seem to be using the uncertainty around the FOMC rate decision and war news to shake out weak hands, liquidating both longs and shorts. They have quarterly targets to meet, so the window for this kind of manipulation is limited. The best approach is probably just to ignore it and not play their game. If they overdo it, they would end up wrecking the whole market and putting their own jobs at risk. Avoiding leverage and margin makes it pretty hard for them to cause any real damage. As a long-term investor, my plan is to just DCA the dips and hold. On the stocks I'm watching: $Advanced Micro Devices(AMD)$  could easily be a trillion-dollar company by year end. $Intel(INTC)$  seems lik

The weakness might be setting up something interesting here. There's an unusual combination playing out: supply is increasing and prices are rising at the same time. That tends to only happen when demand is running well ahead of available capacity. Reports indicate TSMC plans to raise foundry prices by up to 10% starting in 2027. The 2nm process, currently around $30,000 per wafer, could move above $33,000. Meanwhile, TSMC is still pushing aggressive capacity expansion. Baoshan 2nm capacity has reached around 20,000 wafers per month, new Kaohsiung capacity is coming online, the first-year 2nm output target is 45% higher than 3nm's first year, and 2nm capacity is expected to grow at around 70% CAGR from 2026 to 2028. The broader picture is that AI demand is pushing the semiconductor industr

$Amkor Technology(AMKR)$ This looks insanely oversold. The $1.5B investment from Nvidia came through recently, earnings and revenue beat, and it's the only advanced packaging play in the US. They're working side by side with TSM, Nvidia, AMD, and Intel to build out semiconductor manufacturing in the US.

$Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing(TSM)$ It feels like a lot of people haven't really been through a proper market correction lately. This is just how it goes with high-growth names. They run up faster than most, and they pull back just as quickly. The latest noise is about China supposedly encroaching on ASML's territory, which could hit TSM and others in the space. It's the kind of story that shakes out the nervous crowd while the bigger players pick up shares at a discount. A lot of people said they wanted these stocks on sale. Well, here it is. No one knows exactly where the absolute bottom sits, but a nearly 20% discount looks decent from where I stand.

$Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing(TSM)$  I'll go on the chopping block and call green on TSM by the close. Traders are way too edgy and skeptical right now, while investors seem to be stepping in on a very cheap stock and price.

$Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing(TSM)$ Needham, probably one of the most bearish analysts out there, just raised their price target into the mid $500s if I remember correctly. And it was based on strong fundamentals. This sell-off feels completely ridiculous from where I stand.

$Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing(TSM)$ NVIDIA is putting $1.5B into Amkor packaging. AMKR announced that NVDA will provide a $1.5B prepayment under a multi-year advanced packaging and development agreement. The investment is meant to expand Amkor's U.S. advanced packaging capacity at its Arizona campus. The two companies will work together on next-generation AI and accelerated computing packaging technologies, covering high-density interconnects, heterogeneous integration, and advanced chip packaging and testing. Amkor already supports NVIDIA's data center processors, networking chips, and accelerated computing platforms. The AI infrastructure race is moving beyond just GPUs. Advanced packaging is becoming a critical bottleneck as systems g

$Intel(INTC)$ This is a pretty remarkable set of numbers. For a long-term perspective, the $1.1 billion loss reduction at IFS came with just a $1.4 billion increase in revenue year-over-year. That points to a serious level of absorption at what's still an early stage of utilization improvement, somewhere around 35%. Once the external volumes from companies like Apple, Google, Tesla, and others start flowing in and utilization moves toward the 90% range, the math suggests something like $5 billion to $7 billion in quarterly operating profit. That would translate to roughly $30 billion in annual operating profit, which is essentially the kind of money $Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing(TSM)$  is c

$Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing(TSM)$  Retail selling here looks pretty uninformed. All that GOOGL capex spending, along with similar moves from others, really just feeds into TSMC's revenue stream in the end.

These are the AI chip and data center stocks I'm keeping an eye on: $NVIDIA(NVDA)$  - 210 to 480 $Broadcom(AVGO)$  - 401 to 680 $Advanced Micro Devices(AMD)$  - 557 to 720 $Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing(TSM)$  - 439 to 710 $Micron Technology(MU)$  - 995 to 1,500 The AI infrastructure buildout is still a major driver for demand across semiconductors, memory, networking, and advanced manufacturing.

AI infrastructure is still one of the biggest long-term opportunities out there. Building up a portfolio to a significant size takes more than just chasing what's hot. It's about getting into high-quality companies at good prices and having the patience to ride out the market cycles. A few AI names I'm keeping an eye on are $NVIDIA(NVDA)$  around $205, $Broadcom(AVGO)$  at $382, $ARM Holdings(ARM)$  near $275, and $Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing(TSM)$  at $416. The underlying demand story for AI seems solid. The need for GPUs, custom chips, advanced manufacturing, memory, networking, and optical con

$Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing(TSM)$ From where I stand, TSMC is still underappreciated and undervalued, but it seems most investors are already quite confident in it. The key is just to have a well-balanced portfolio. The recent price hike announcement looks more like a move to maintain margins rather than anything more significant. TSMC will handle its own business, as the saying goes. Honestly, the only one who might feel the pinch here is Apple. If their new iPhone sells well and they need rush orders like before, they'll have to pay the surcharge regardless. Come to think of it, maybe Jensen Huang too. He's clearly a big supporter of TSMC and probably wouldn't mind paying extra if he needs more capacity.

CPO could be one of the biggest shifts in AI infrastructure. As AI clusters scale, traditional pluggable optics might just be a temporary fix. Future systems will need higher bandwidth, lower latency, and better power efficiency. Some key challenges for CPO are thermal management, as AI chips generate massive heat while optical components are highly temperature sensitive, glass substrates requiring advanced manufacturing and precision via drilling, and laser integration where balancing heat, efficiency, and optical performance remains difficult. Once reliable CPO solutions are commercialized, demand could accelerate rapidly, with supply becoming the main constraint. Key players to watch include $Marvell Technology(MRVL)$ ,