TSMC Fourth-Quarter Revenue Jumps 20%, Beating Market Forecasts

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TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, reported a 20.45% year-on-year rise in fourth-quarter revenue on Friday, beating market expectations as booming demand for artificial intelligence applications lifted sales.

Revenue for the October–December period reached T$1.046 trillion ($33.11 billion), based on Reuters calculations from the company’s monthly disclosures, up from T$868.46 billion a year earlier. The result topped an LSEG SmartEstimate of T$1.036 trillion and came within the company’s previous guidance range of $32.2 billion to $33.4 billion issued in October.

TSMC has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the global AI boom, supplying advanced chips to customers such as Nvidia and Apple. Strong AI-related demand has more than offset softer orders for chips used in consumer electronics, where pandemic-driven demand has faded.

The company is scheduled to report full fourth-quarter earnings on January 15, when it is expected to provide updated guidance for the current quarter and the full year. Investors will be watching closely for details on capital expenditure plans and revenue growth expectations.

TSMC’s Taipei-listed shares rose 44.2% in 2025, significantly outperforming the broader Taiwanese market, which gained 25.7%. The strong performance mirrors broader momentum in the semiconductor supply chain driven by AI. Earlier this week, Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics maker and a key Nvidia server supplier, also reported robust fourth-quarter sales.

Stablecoin Firm Rain Valued at $1.95 Billion in $250 Million Fundraise

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Stablecoin company Rain said on Friday it raised $250 million in a Series C funding round led by ICONIQ, valuing the firm at $1.95 billion, as investor appetite for crypto-related businesses continues to strengthen.

Stablecoins — cryptocurrencies pegged to assets such as the U.S. dollar — have gained traction among consumers, investors and major financial institutions as digital assets move closer to the financial mainstream. The sector has also benefited from a more accommodating regulatory environment under U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, encouraging traditional financial firms to explore crypto-based products.

Rain said the latest round brings its total funding to more than $338 million and comes just four months after its previous fundraise. The company added that its valuation has risen more than 17-fold in the past 10 months.

A spokesperson for Rain said the company’s priority is to expand its presence in key licensed markets and deepen its full-stack stablecoin payments platform, including through strategic acquisitions.

Rain provides infrastructure that allows businesses to issue and manage stablecoin-linked payment cards and digital wallets, enabling users to transact anywhere Visa is accepted.

“Stablecoins are quickly becoming the way money moves in the 21st century, but adoption by users worldwide requires cards and apps that just work,” said Rain CEO and co-founder Farooq Malik. He added that Rain’s active card base has grown 30-fold over the past year, while annualized payment volume increased 38%, though the company remains “in the early innings.”

Malik said the new capital will be used to enter additional markets, scale operations and support more enterprise product launches.

Other investors participating in the round included Sapphire Ventures, Dragonfly, Bessemer Venture Partners, Galaxy Ventures, FirstMark, Lightspeed, Norwest and Endeavor Catalyst.

US Commerce Department Withdraws Plan to Restrict Chinese-Made Drones

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The U.S. Commerce Department said on Friday it has dropped plans to impose new restrictions on Chinese-made drones aimed at addressing national security concerns, stepping back from a proposal that followed an earlier crackdown on passenger cars and trucks.

The decision comes after the Federal Communications Commission last month barred imports of new models of foreign-made drones and critical components on national security grounds, including products from China’s DJI and Autel. The FCC said this week it would exempt some non-Chinese drones from those restrictions.

The Commerce Department had said in September that it planned to issue rules that could restrict or potentially block imports of Chinese drones due to concerns over information and communications technology supply chains. The proposal was sent to the White House for review on October 8, but was formally withdrawn on Thursday, according to a government website posting released on Friday.

Under the FCC’s current measures, Chinese drone manufacturers cannot obtain the approvals needed to sell new drone models or key components in the United States. However, the rules do not ban the import, sale or use of existing drone models previously authorized, nor do they affect drones already purchased by users.

Records posted online show that the White House and the Commerce Department discussed the drone proposal through December 19 and met with DJI officials on December 11. During those discussions, DJI argued that blanket restrictions on drones manufactured in China would be “unnecessary, conceptually flawed, and extremely harmful to U.S. stakeholders.”

The withdrawal appears to be linked to a broader pause in actions targeting China ahead of a planned meeting in April between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to a government official briefed on the matter.

The Commerce Department had previously warned that threats from China and Russia could allow adversaries to remotely access or manipulate drone systems, potentially exposing sensitive U.S. data. It had also been considering restrictions on key drone systems such as onboard computers, communications equipment, flight control systems, operating software and data storage — measures that some experts said could amount to an effective ban on Chinese drones.

Chinese imports account for the majority of commercial drone sales in the United States, with DJI alone representing more than half of the market. Neither the Commerce Department nor DJI immediately responded to requests for comment.