--- title: "Taiwan’s chipmakers will be hit by a big power bill in January." description: "Taiwan froze electricity rates in September, despite Taipower calling for a 12.83% increase to cover rising fuel costs. The government will review rates again in December, with any increase taking eff" url: "https://bilby.ai/predictions/p/182/taiwan-s-chipmakers-will-be-hit-by-a-big-power-bill-in-january" markdown: "https://bilby.ai/predictions/p/182/taiwan-s-chipmakers-will-be-hit-by-a-big-power-bill-in-january.md" index: "https://bilby.ai/llms.txt" --- > For agents: Bilby answers questions about what governments do, from documents collected at source and checked by research analysts. To ask Bilby yourself, connect to its MCP server at https://pulse.bilby.ai/mcp (setup: https://docs.bilby.ai/developers/mcp-server). Every page on this site is also markdown: add .md to its address, or send Accept: text/markdown. https://bilby.ai/llms.txt lists them all. # Taiwan’s chipmakers will be hit by a big power bill in January. - **Made:** 23 Oct 2026 - **By:** Owen Bae - **Market:** Taiwan - **Outcome:** Unresolved Taiwan froze electricity rates in September, despite Taipower calling for a 12.83% increase to cover rising fuel costs. The government will review rates again in December, with any increase taking effect on 1 January 2027. Taipower’s fuel bill is up NT$160 billion (US$4.9 billion) this year, adding an expected NT$70 billion to its accumulated losses. Heavy users are the obvious next source of cash, TSMC is particularly exposed. Its Taiwan factories consumed 9.2% of the island’s electricity in 2025. A 12.83% tariff increase would cost TSMC roughly US$370 million a year, while a 25% increase, similar to 2024, would cost US$750 million. The 2024 increase cut TSMC’s gross margin by 0.7–0.8 percentage points in one quarter. TSMC could therefore cover roughly a tenth of Taipower’s additional fuel costs. Smaller chipmakers such as UMC and Vanguard would face a greater hit to their profit margins, but TSMC would bear the largest bill. [Ask Bilby about this prediction](https://pulse.bilby.ai/?prompt=Taiwan%E2%80%99s%20chipmakers%20will%20be%20hit%20by%20a%20big%20power%20bill%20in%20January.) ## Ask Bilby about it Carry the prediction into a question: what has changed since, who decides, and who is exposed. - [What has changed since it was made?](https://pulse.bilby.ai/?prompt=What%20has%20changed%20since%20Bilby%20predicted%20this%3F%20Taiwan%E2%80%99s%20chipmakers%20will%20be%20hit%20by%20a%20big%20power%20bill%20in%20January.) - [Who decides whether it happens?](https://pulse.bilby.ai/?prompt=Who%20decides%20whether%20this%20happens%3F%20Taiwan%E2%80%99s%20chipmakers%20will%20be%20hit%20by%20a%20big%20power%20bill%20in%20January.) - [Who gains and who loses if it does?](https://pulse.bilby.ai/?prompt=Who%20gains%20and%20who%20loses%20if%20this%20happens%3F%20Taiwan%E2%80%99s%20chipmakers%20will%20be%20hit%20by%20a%20big%20power%20bill%20in%20January.) ## More from Taiwan 14 predictions on Taiwan so far, newest first. - 12 Nov 2026 · [Samsung Electro-Mechanics would capture a larger share of US AI-chip substrate orders in 2027.](https://bilby.ai/predictions/p/213/samsung-electro-mechanics-would-capture-a-larger-share-of-us-ai-chip-substrate-o) · Unresolved - 10 Nov 2026 · [Taiwanese tungsten exporters will face squeezed margins in 2027.](https://bilby.ai/predictions/p/211/taiwanese-tungsten-exporters-will-face-squeezed-margins-in-2027) · Unresolved - 9 Nov 2026 · [Nvidia will place additional AI memory orders with SK hynix or Samsung by the end of 2027.](https://bilby.ai/predictions/p/210/nvidia-will-place-additional-ai-memory-orders-with-sk-hynix-or-samsung-by-the-en) · Unresolved [All 14 from Taiwan](https://bilby.ai/predictions/log?tag=taiwan) · Marked true or false when each resolves ## See what we’re seeing next. New predictions in the Asia Daily Take, free every weekday, and in Bilby whenever you have a question. [Get the Asia Daily Take](https://bilby.ai/asia#asia-daily-take) · [Try Bilby](https://pulse.bilby.ai/sign-up)