he Q3 2025 earnings season showed a widening gap between advanced-node leaders, specialty-focused foundries, and companies still struggling with yield, utilization, or legacy-node exposure. AI, automotive, data center optics and power analog continued to deliver strong demand, while smartphones and PCs remained mixed.
TSMC and Samsung maintained strong momentum powered by AI accelerators and advanced processes. Intel returned to profit at the group level, but its foundry business remains firmly in the red while 18A yield challenges persist. SMIC pushed 7nm further, and specialty foundries such as Tower, X-Fab and UMC leaned heavily into SiGe, SiPho, SiC and 22/55 nm specialty platforms. GlobalFoundries delivered stable results with solid automotive and photonics traction.
Below is a simplified financial snapshot before diving into the company-by-company breakdown.
TSMC generated 33.1 billion USD in Q3 2025 revenue, a 10.1 percent sequential increase and a 40.8 percent jump year over year. Net income reached 15.1 billion USD. Advanced technologies below 7 nm accounted for almost three quarters of wafer revenue, with 3 nm contributing 23 percent and 5 nm around 37 percent. AI and high-performance computing represented more than half of company revenue, while smartphones recovered modestly.
For Q4 2025, TSMC expects revenue between 32.2 and 33.4 billion USD. The company reiterated its full-year outlook of revenue growth in the mid-30s percent range. Capital spending for 2025 will reach between 40 and 42 billion USD, heavily focused on N3, N2 and advanced packaging capacity, including CoWoS. N2 volume production remains scheduled for late 2025, with a faster ramp planned in 2026.
Samsung’s semiconductor division posted roughly 23.3 billion USD in revenue, up 19 percent compared to Q2 2025. Profit reached about 4.9 billion USD. Memory was the star performer, achieving an all-time high for quarterly sales due to HBM3E and server SSD demand. HBM4 samples have already been delivered to customers. Foundry earnings improved sharply thanks to lower one-off costs, better fab utilization, and record customer orders for advanced nodes.
In Q3, Samsung officially began mass production of its 2 nm GAA process, extending its lead in nanosheet FET commercialization. Although yields remain an ongoing challenge at both 3 nm and 2 nm, Samsung expects Q4 to bring continued earnings improvement driven by 2 nm ramping and higher utilization. In 2026, the company plans stable mass production of 2 nm, volume production of the HBM4 base-die, and the start of manufacturing at the Taylor, Texas fab.
Intel reported 13.7 billion USD in revenue for Q3, up 3 percent year over year, and returned to profitability with 4.1 billion USD in net income after a large loss in the prior year. Much of the turnaround was supported by investment inflows from the US government, Nvidia, and SoftBank. Gross margin and operating efficiency improved.
The foundry unit remained deeply unprofitable, losing 2.3 billion USD on revenue of 4.2 billion USD. Most of this revenue was generated internally rather than from external customers. Intel announced its first 18A products, including Panther Lake (client CPUs) and Clearwater Forest (server CPUs). However, manufacturing yields for 18A appear stuck around 50–55 percent. This could delay large-scale Panther Lake shipments into the second quarter of 2026.
Intel expects Q4 revenue between 12.8 and 13.8 billion USD but forecasts a loss of 0.14 USD per share, highlighting the continued financial pressure from its foundry transformation.
SMIC posted 2.382 billion USD in Q3 2025 revenue, up 7.8 percent sequentially and 9.7 percent year over year. Net profit reached 192 million USD. The company operated at 95.8 percent utilization. SMIC continues to expand 7 nm production with roughly 20,000 wafers per month of capacity, of which Huawei reportedly absorbs about 15,000 wafers monthly. 7 nm yields improved significantly to around 60–70 percent, up from below 40 percent at launch. The company continues research on 5 nm.
SMIC expects revenue in Q4 to be flat to up 2 percent quarter over quarter, signaling a steady but maturing demand environment.
GlobalFoundries recorded 1.688 billion USD in revenue for Q3, flat sequentially and down 3 percent year over year. Net income was 249 million USD, rising 9 percent quarter to quarter. Utilization was in the mid-to-high-80 percent range. Automotive and communications infrastructure/data center markets continued to grow strongly, while mobile and consumer remained softer.
For Q4, GlobalFoundries projects roughly 1.8 billion USD in revenue. Looking ahead, capex is expected to rise to support the expansion of Fab 1 in Dresden, with major capacity additions planned for 2027.
UMC generated approximately 1.94 billion USD in Q3 revenue, up 0.6 percent sequentially but down 2.2 percent year over year. Net income reached 492 million USD. Utilization improved to 78 percent, driven by a 3.4 percent increase in wafer shipments. Communications accounted for 42 percent of revenue and consumer electronics for 29 percent. The 22/28 nm nodes contributed 35 percent of wafer revenue, while 40 nm rose to 17 percent.
UMC expects wafer shipments to remain flat in Q4, ASPs to hold firm, and capacity utilization to settle in the mid-70 percent range. Full-year wafer shipment growth is expected to be in the low teens, and 22 nm revenue contribution should continue to rise in 2026. The newly announced 55 nm BCD platform expands its automotive and industrial portfolio.
Tower reported 396 million USD in Q3 revenue, up 6 percent quarter over quarter and 7 percent year over year. Net profit reached 54 million USD. Growth was supported by power management, CMOS image sensors and 65 nm RF mobile platforms. The company stressed expanding demand for silicon germanium (SiGe) and silicon photonics for optical transceivers.
Tower announced an additional 300 million USD in capital investment focused on SiGe and SiPho expansion, including the enlargement of its 200 mm Fab 3 in Newport Beach and a lease extension. Three additional fabs are being repurposed for a richer SiGe/SiPho mix.
For Q4, Tower forecasts 440 million USD in revenue, plus or minus 5 percent, driven heavily by data-center optical demand.
VIS posted approximately 399 million USD in Q3 revenue, up 5.6 percent sequentially and 4.6 percent year over year. Net income was about 55 million USD. Wafer shipments increased around 7 percent quarter over quarter and ASPs rose 2 percent. Earnings were down versus last year due to cost pressure.
For Q4, VIS expects wafer shipments to decline 6–8 percent, ASPs to increase 4–6 percent, and gross margins to land between 26.5 and 28.5 percent. The company also expects to recognize additional long-term agreement income equal to around 1 percent of quarterly revenue.
X-Fab reported 228.6 million USD in Q3 revenue, up 6 percent quarter to quarter and 11 percent year over year. Despite the growth, the company recorded a net loss of 5.6 million USD, largely due to higher operating costs. Automotive, industrial and medical applications accounted for the vast majority of revenue. The company continues to advance its silicon carbide platform, with increasing design activity, and its Microsystems division is engaged in several co-creation programs with key customers.
For Q4, X-Fab expects revenue in the range of 215 to 225 million USD. The company also announced that current COO Damien Macq will take over as CEO in February 2026.
