Taiwan Electronics & Semiconductors: Taiwan monthly tracker and what's new in AI – Positive into earnings season

Citigroup published its monthly Taiwan technology supply chain tracker, expressing a positive stance heading into the 3Q26 earnings season. Taiwan's technology supply chain concluded a robust 3Q26 revenue, with accelerating revenue growth for substrate and CCL makers alongside solid momentum in foundry, OSAT and testing interface/equipment; server ODMs are benefiting from the new Rubin system and ASIC rack ramping, providing better visibility into 4Q26 and 2027. On AI compute demand, TSMC and ASEH reported solid 18% and 28% QoQ revenue growth in 3Q26 respectively, with TSMC likely to beat its full-year guidance and deliver mid-40% YoY growth for 2026. For testing interface and equipment, Chroma and Hon Precision posted stronger-than-expected September and 3Q26 revenue, and Rubin Ultra's expandable scale-up CPO rack design is expected to be the next catalyst into late 2026/early 2027. In IC fabless, GUC and Alchip saw 3Q26 revenue ahead of consensus with 35%/243% QoQ growth on ARM-based