The Taiwanese group, which published its quarterly results yesterday, is also suffering from the unfavorable conditions that are affecting the semiconductor sector as a whole. The latter, among others, is well illustrated by the recent earnings announcements of Micron and ASML.

TSCM, on the other hand, could have done without the publicity of the past few days. Warren Buffett has confirmed that the sale of his stake - held by Berkshire for only a few weeks - was motivated by heightened geopolitical risk.

It's a bad deal, but it's true that it's becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the rising tensions between China and the United States. The 2024 presidential election in Taiwan is already crystallizing all the dangers. Earlier this year, a four-star U.S. Air Force general predicted open conflict as early as 2025 between the two superpowers.

Back to the financials. TSMC's sales declined by 16% compared to the previous quarter; its shipments by 13%; its book profits by 6%; while its cash profits, also known as "free cash flow", were divided by two.

This decline is caused primarily by sharp declines in the smartphone and HPC (high performance computing) segments, which together account for four-fifths of TSMC's sales.

The Taiwanese company still has a substantial advantage over Intel. It invests $10 to $15 billion more per year, which allows it to further secure its technological dominance. Its balance sheet is excellent, with no net debt, unlike that of the American group, which has little room for manœuvre.

But TSMC's current enterprise value is $412 billion, a multiple of 25 times last year's cash profit, clearly at the top of the cycle after the disruptions and price hikes caused by the pandemic. Should we risk extrapolating such an exceptional year?

Twenty years ago, it would have been easy to justify such a multiple for Intel. Old-timers will remember the overwhelming technological monopoly on which the American company relied. On the face of it, nothing could stand in the way of the almighty "Intel Inside", but we know what happened next - and that without any background noise.