Wei Zhejia’s move—first suppressing and then rising—was played brilliantly; the way dividend-expectation management is handled feels like feeding the market a “stabilizing pill” to steady confidence. But can the cash-burning pace of 12 wafer fabs truly hold up the promise of “no limit/cap”?

According to Beating monitoring, TSMC's Wei Zhejia held a company-wide meeting on May 27 to quell rumors of reduced dividends, stating that if performance remains flat compared to last year, dividends in 2026 could increase by over 30%, and emphasizing that there is no cap on distribution.
The incident originated from internal complaints in mid-May, questioning why Q1 dividends did not increase significantly with profits, and rumors that May dividends would be cut by 10–20%.
He stated that there are no structural salary increase plans at the moment, with annual adjustments favoring grassroots employees, and also encouraged stock purchases.
The company is expanding 12 wafer fabs to tackle 2nm/1.4nm processes, with huge capital expenditures, which conflicts with dividend demands.