AppliPhonee's chip manufacturer TSMC has reported better than expected revenues for Q4 2023, and says it's due to AI causing increased demand for high-performance processors.

TSMC has previously been hit with falling demand as smartphone and laptop manufacturers had stockpiled processors during the global chip shortage. By July 2023, it was reporting a fall in profits, but expected the iPhone 15 would help it to rebound.

According to Bloomberg, there may not have been as great a lift from Apple sales as hoped, but still TSMC managed to match its Q4 2023 earnings from the same period in 2022.

TSMC has reported quarterly earnings of NT$625.5 billion ($20.13 billion). Analysts had predicted only a little less at around $19.83 billion.

CEO C.C. Wei said that the company believes the issue of stockpiled inventory is now largely resolved. Wei also said that its high-performance processor business was boosted by the AI-driven demand from Nvidia and AMD devices.

TSMC has not reported its sales breakdown, so it's not known what proportion of the 2023 earnings came from Apple. However, despite C.C. Wei's statement about smartphones generally,it has previously been reported that the iPhone 15 has otherwise broken the smartphone market's sales slump.

Despite the otherwise falling demand for processors over 2023, TSMC is continuing to expand its operations in Germany, Japan, and Arizona.