TSMC’s board approved investments of up to $500 million each in Anthropic and OpenAI on 10 November, the company’s board resolutions release says: Anthropic common shares at its IPO price, and OpenAI preferred stock. The same meeting approved about $40.9 billion of capital appropriations, which brings the four 2026 board approvals to $146.6 billion, by our arithmetic, 2.3 times the top of TSMC’s 2026 capital budget.
Relays on X carried half of this: one said the board approved investments in OpenAI, another the $40.9 billion. The release names both AI developers in the same resolution.
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The key insight: TSMC’s board approved up to $500 million each in Anthropic common shares at the IPO price and OpenAI preferred stock on 10 November, up to $1.0 billion that equals 0.8% of its $126 billion in cash and marketable securities, by our arithmetic. The same meeting approved about $40.9 billion of capital appropriations, taking 2026 approvals to $146.6 billion.
Resolution 5 reads: “Approved the investments in (1) Anthropic, PBC at its per share initial public offering price in an amount not to exceed US$500 million to acquire Anthropic’s common shares; and (2) OpenAI Group PBC in an amount not to exceed US$500 million to acquire OpenAI’s preferred stock”. That is up to $1.0 billion in the two AI developers, by our arithmetic.
Resolution 4 approved “the investment of no more than US$500 million in the establishment of an investment company for the purpose of making strategic investments in the semiconductor industry and related ecosystem”. With it, the meeting cleared up to $1.5 billion of investments outside TSMC’s own fabs, by our arithmetic.
The Anthropic leg matches Anthropic’s amended S-1, also filed on 10 November, which lists TSMC Partners, Ltd. among the seven buyers of a $26.0 billion private placement of Class N common stock at the IPO price. The release gives no price, share count or date for the OpenAI purchase.
Capital appropriations approved at each of TSMC’s four 2026 board meetings, from its board resolutions releases. The $146.6 billion total and its ratio to the $60 billion to $64 billion 2026 capital budget are our arithmetic.
What Was Posted on X
TSMC will buy up to $500M of Anthropic shares at its IPO price and up to $500M of OpenAI preferred stock.
Wall St Engine (@wallstengine) posted on 10 November 2026 at 11:51 UTC: โTSMC will buy up to $500M of Anthropic shares at its IPO price and up to $500M of OpenAI preferred stock.โ The post matches the two approvals in TSMCโs board resolutions release, which this piece quotes: Anthropic common shares at its IPO price and OpenAI preferred stock.
TSMC BOARD APPROVES ~$40.9B IN CAPITAL SPENDING FOR LONG-TERM CAPACITY
Wall St Engine (@wallstengine) posted on 10 November 2026 at 11:57 UTC: โTSMC BOARD APPROVES ~$40.9B IN CAPITAL SPENDING FOR LONG-TERM CAPACITYโ. The post gives no breakdown. Its ~$40.9B rounds the approximately US$40,926.70 million in TSMCโs board release, which this piece quotes in the next section.
The $40.9 Billion Appropriation
Resolution 3 approved “capital appropriations of approximately US$40,926.70 million” for advanced technology capacity, advanced packaging, mature and specialty capacity, fab construction, and “2027 R&D capital investments, sustaining capital expenditures, and capitalized leased assets”.
The three earlier 2026 meetings approved about $44,962.00 million at the February meeting, $31,284.30 million at the May meeting and $29,442.50 million at the August meeting. November’s figure is 39.0% above August’s, and the four total $146.6 billion, by our arithmetic.
On its 15 October earnings call, TSMC reiterated “our full year 2026 capital budget to be between $60 billion and $64 billion”. The $146.6 billion of approvals is 2.3 to 2.4 times that range, by our arithmetic. Appropriations are approvals to commit capital, not the year’s spending, and the releases do not say over what period each one is spent.
The Investments Against the Cash
TSMC said on the same call that it ended the third quarter with “cash and marketable securities of TWD 4 trillion, or $126 billion”. The up to $1.0 billion for Anthropic and OpenAI equals 0.8% of that, and 2.4% of the November appropriation, by our arithmetic. Including the new investment company, the $1.5 billion is 1.2% of the cash.
None of the three earlier 2026 board releases included an approval to invest in an AI developer. They did approve capital injections of up to $30 billion into TSMC Global in February and up to $20 billion into TSMC Arizona in May, and a joint venture with Sony Semiconductor Solutions in August.
Dividend and Results
The board also approved a cash dividend of NT$9.0 per share for the third quarter, up from NT$7.0 for the second quarter, a 28.6% increase, by our arithmetic. The ex-dividend date is 11 March 2027 and payment is on 8 April 2027. It approved third-quarter results of NT$1,494.24 billion in revenue and NT$763.06 billion in net income, as reported on 15 October; October sales were in our piece this morning.
The Structural Read
As we read the release, it treats the two AI developers in one resolution with the same ceiling for each, but on different terms: Anthropic common shares at an IPO price, and OpenAI preferred stock.
As we read the numbers, the stakes are small next to the capacity spending: up to $1.0 billion in the two AI developers is 2.4% of the November appropriation alone, by our arithmetic.
TSMC, Q3 2026 earnings call, 15 October 2026
“At TSMC, a higher level of capital expenditures is always correlated with higher growth opportunities in the following years”
Three Implications
FOR ANTHROPIC TSMC’s amount is set at the per-share IPO price, which is not final; Anthropic’s S-1/A lists TSMC Partners, Ltd. among seven buyers of a $26.0 billion placement.
FOR OPENAI The release says TSMC would acquire OpenAI preferred stock for up to $500 million; it gives no price or timing.
FOR TSMC The four 2026 board approvals total $146.6 billion, 2.3 times the top of the $60 billion to $64 billion 2026 capital budget, by our arithmetic; the third-quarter dividend rises to NT$9.0 from NT$7.0.
The framework argues: “the capex race is no longer a corporate spending cycle. It is a sovereign-scale financing problem dressed in tech-company clothing”.
As we read it, TSMC’s resolutions show both sides: $146.6 billion of capacity approvals this year, and up to $1.0 billion of equity in two AI developers that buy compute built on its chips, by our arithmetic. The framework predates this release and does not discuss it.
What Is Not Established
The release does not give a price or valuation for the OpenAI preferred stock, a timetable for either investment, or which TSMC entity buys the OpenAI shares. The Anthropic amount depends on the final IPO price, which is not set; the filed range is $70 to $78. TSMC does not say what the new investment company will invest in beyond the semiconductor industry and its ecosystem.
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TSMC’s board approved up to $500 million each in Anthropic and OpenAI, up to $1.0 billion that equals 0.8% of its $126 billion in cash and marketable securities, by our arithmetic. The same meeting’s $40.9 billion appropriation brings 2026 approvals to $146.6 billion, 2.3 times the top of the year’s capital budget.
A note on sourcing. Resolutions, amounts and quotations are from TSMC’s board resolutions releases of 10 November, 11 August, 12 May and 10 February 2026; the capital budget and cash figures are from TSMC’s 15 October 2026 earnings call; the placement detail is from Anthropic’s S-1/A of 10 November 2026. Sums, ratios and percentages are our arithmetic. TSMC, Anthropic and OpenAI were not contacted for this piece.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
