Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR(TSM. US) CEO will be absent from Trump's inauguration ceremony and downplay concerns about the impact of US chip restrictions on business.

The Chief Executive Officer of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR (TSM.US), Wei Zhejia, will not attend the inauguration ceremony of the newly elected U.S. President Trump. Wei Zhejia stated on Thursday that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR also will not make donations and would prefer to maintain a low profile. When asked about making donations or attending, he said, "We prefer to keep a low profile, so the answer to both questions is no." The inauguration ceremony on Monday is highly anticipated, with many prominent figures from the tech industry expected to attend. CEOs Tim Cook, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk are likely to join. Wei Zhejia's decision comes amidst growing U.S. restrictions aimed at preventing advanced chips from flowing into China. The Biden administration this week announced new regulations specifically targeting the supply of AI accelerators to China. Clients of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR, such as NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA.US), and other tech companies have protested against these regulations, claiming they harm U.S. innovation and were rushed out by the outgoing government in its final days. At the same time Wei Zhejia made these remarks, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR announced better-than-expected revenue and capital expenditure outlook for 2025, which boosted the market. This strong performance has fueled optimism for an unprecedented AI spending cycle, which had propelled companies like NVIDIA Corporation to new heights. The emergence of ChatGPT in the past two years has fueled the ever-growing data center expansion, benefiting companies providing hardware for the AI boom. Nevertheless, there has yet to be a profitable large-scale AI application, raising concerns about a potential bubble. Like many companies in the industry, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR is working to address the uncertainty brought by the U.S.-China tech conflict, which could disrupt global supply chains. However, Wei Zhejia played down concerns about the impact of these restrictions on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR's business, stating that the effects of these restrictions appear to be "manageable," and that they will not affect sectors such as automotive and cryptocurrency mining that are not related to AI. He said, "We are 100% confident that it will not leak into the restricted areas."