Foxconn's NT$3tn quarter: record sales, profit still unknown

Foxconn has reported its biggest revenue quarter. July–September sales reached about NT$3.03 trillion, up 47% from a year earlier, with AI-server demand helping drive the increase, Reuters reported on October 5. That is a record for sales, not yet a result for quarterly profit.

The distinction matters. In the last full quarter for which both companies have reported earnings, Foxconn generated roughly twice TSMC's revenue. TSMC nevertheless earned about eight times as much operating profit. Both participate in the AI hardware build-out, but those company-wide figures show how little a sales ranking tells us about earnings.

September delivered more than a third of the quarter

Hon Hai, Foxconn's listed parent, reported September revenue of NT$1,158.6 billion, compared with NT$837.1 billion a year earlier, in its October 5 RNS announcement, reproduced by London South East. The filing labels its figures unaudited and gives the underlying unit as thousands of New Taiwan dollars.

Combining September with July and August revenue on Foxconn's monthly revenue table gives approximately NT$3.027 trillion for the quarter. Our calculation puts September at about 38% of that total. This checks the scale of the reported quarter against the company's monthly numbers; it does not establish its profit margin.

AI is also not the whole business. Foxconn's August 12 earnings release anticipated growth in both cloud and networking products and smart consumer electronics. A consolidated sales increase cannot be treated as an AI-only revenue figure.

Twice the sales, one-eighth the operating profit

The comparable period is April–June 2026. Foxconn reported NT$2.53 trillion of revenue and NT$94.8 billion of operating profit. TSMC's Q2 management report records NT$1,270.38 billion of revenue and NT$766.60 billion of operating income.

Dividing the reported operating profits gives an approximately 8.1-to-one ratio in TSMC's favour. Put another way, Foxconn earned about NT$3.75 of operating profit for every NT$100 of revenue; TSMC earned NT$60.30. Operating profit is not the same as net income or cash available to shareholders.

This is a comparison of two different businesses, not a ranking of AI-product profitability. Consolidated margins include their other operations. The figures alone cannot tell us how much profit either company earned specifically from AI, why their margins differ, or which shares offer better value.

The missing number arrives with earnings

Foxconn's investor calendar lists its third-quarter results conference for November 12. Until those earnings are reported, applying the Q2 margin to Q3 sales would produce a scenario, not an observed profit figure.

The question for the next report is whether the revenue surge came with a stronger operating margin. More hardware shipped and more money earned are related questions, but they require different evidence. On the buyer's side, our reporting on Amazon's proposed Nvidia-chip financing vehicle examines another part of that chain: who supplies the capital to pay for the equipment.