Applied Digital Corporation vs Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co. Ltd. — how do they compare? Applied Digital Corporation trades at $30.76 (market cap $8.55B), while Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co. Ltd. trades at $429.9 (market cap $1.93T). The key difference: Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co. Ltd. is far larger — about 225.7× Applied Digital Corporation's market cap, and Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co. Ltd. pays a 0.9% dividend while Applied Digital Corporation pays none. Which is the better fit depends on your goals.
| APLD | TSM | |
|---|---|---|
Market Cap | $8.55B | $1.93T |
Sector | Technology | Technology |
52-Week High | $49.65 | $477.57 |
52-Week Low | $13.89 | $227.33 |
Enterprise Value | $12.06B | $1.85T |
Dividend Yield | — | 0.9% |
Signals from Pluang's Aura AI — not financial advice
Applied Digital (APLD) trades at $31.50, up 8.4% today, showing strong momentum despite recent volatility. The stock maintains a neutral technical signal with mixed indicators, while fundamentals reveal aggressive growth with $144M revenue in 2025 projected to surge to $611M in 2026. The company secured $36B in contracted AI infrastructure revenue, driving investor optimism, though it operates at a net loss with negative margins. Analyst consensus is unanimously bullish with a $72.36 price target, representing 130% upside potential from current levels.
APLD presents high-growth potential as an AI infrastructure play with massive contracted backlog, but carries significant execution risk amid substantial losses and heavy capital expenditure needs. The stock's valuation appears stretched at 13.37x sales despite negative profitability, while insider selling and institutional position reductions signal caution. Investors face binary outcomes between transformative AI infrastructure success and financial strain from the company's aggressive expansion pace.
TSM trades at $418.47, down 0.37% on the day, with a bullish technical signal from moving averages. The stock has consistently beaten earnings estimates, with Q2 2026 EPS of $4.31 surpassing the $3.87 forecast. Revenue growth is robust, with July 2026 sales up 44.7% year-over-year, driven by strong AI demand. Valuation ratios are elevated, with a P/E of 31.86 and P/S of 15.91, reflecting high growth expectations. Analysts maintain a strong buy consensus with a $545.67 price target.
The outlook for TSM is positive, supported by accelerating revenue growth, expanding profit margins, and strategic investments in AI and joint ventures. Key risks include high valuation multiples, competitive pressures, and geopolitical factors. The stock offers significant upside to the consensus target, but investors should monitor execution on capacity expansion and demand sustainability.
Trailing returns across standard periods
Latest headlines on both assets
Applied Digital provides high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure and cloud services. It designs and operates data centers tailored for AI, machine learning, and other intensive digital workloads across North America.
Read more on APLD →Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC, is the world's largest dedicated chip foundry, with over 57% market share in 2021 per Gartner. TSMC was founded in 1987 as a joint venture of Philips, the government of Taiwan, and private investors. It went public as an ADR in the U.S. in 1997. TSMC's scale and high-quality technology allow the firm to generate solid operating margins, even in the highly competitive foundry business. Furthermore, the shift to the fabless business model has created tailwinds for TSMC. The foundry leader has an illustrious customer base, including Apple, AMD and Nvidia, that looks to apply cutting-edge process technologies to its semiconductor designs.
Read more on TSM →