Delta Air Lines Earnings Could Be Smooth on the Surface--But Analysts Warn of Trouble Beneath

Delta will kick off airline earnings Thursday.

Summary
  • Bank of America, UBS, and Morgan Stanley caution that macroeconomic “cracks” could weigh on demand recovery.
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If you needed more proof that artificial intelligence isn't just hype, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. just delivered it. The chipmaking giant reported second-quarter sales of NT$933.8 billion—or $31.9 billion—crushing expectations and topping its own guidance range from April.

The reason? AI chips. Lots of them.

TSMC's factories are humming thanks to strong demand from the biggest names in tech—think Nvidia (NVDA, Financials), which just touched a $4 trillion valuation, and Apple (AAPL, Financials), which remains a fixture in the global AI conversation. Together, they're keeping TSMC's advanced nodes in high demand.

To put it into perspective, analysts had expected sales of about NT$927.8 billion. Not only did TSMC beat that, but it also sailed past the NT$28.4–29.2 billion range it had forecast earlier this year.

This isn't just a tech company beating earnings—it's a barometer of the AI economy itself. As everything from smartphones to data centers lean more heavily on AI, the companies that build the brains of those machines are seeing windfall after windfall.

TSMC, the world's largest contract chip manufacturer, will unveil full earnings details—including net profit and guidance—on July 17. Investors will be tuning in closely, especially given the stock's momentum and its outsized role in the global semiconductor supply chain.

With AI demand not cooling down anytime soon, TSMC seems to be in the sweet spot—and it's showing in the numbers.

Disclosures

I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and have no plans to buy any new positions in the stocks mentioned within the next 72 hours. Click for the complete disclosure