Weekly Check-In: TSM, BRK.B, AMZN

TSM is around $423, up roughly 5% from last week on the back of a beat-and-raise Q2: record $40.2B revenue, 67.7% gross margin, and 2026 revenue-growth guidance lifted to just above 40%. Capex guidance holds at $60–64B, funding three new 3nm fabs in Taiwan, Arizona, and Kumamoto. Shares still dipped mid-week even on the good news — a reminder the market's already pricing in a lot of this growth — but remain well above both the 100- and 200-day averages. Consensus stays Strong Buy, average target ~$540.

BRK.B is at $520, up modestly from last week's $512 close, with Q2 earnings due tomorrow (Aug 8) — none of that report is in today's price yet. Abel reportedly spent up to $11B on buybacks last quarter, which would be the largest in company history, and closed the Taylor Morrison homebuilder acquisition. UBS raised its target to $585. The overhang hasn't gone away, though: the bear case is real underperformance versus the S&P from limited tech exposure, a "fading Buffett premium" a year into Abel's tenure, and Abel himself flagging cyberattacks and deepfakes as a live risk the company is managing daily.

AMZN hit an all-time high of $284 this week before settling around $272, still riding the Q2 beat — AWS's fastest growth in 18 quarters and margin expansion that eased AI-spend worries. FY26 capex guidance holds at $220B. Two less-flattering headlines landed the same week: New Jersey's AG sued Amazon over alleged antitrust abuse of its delivery-contractor program (Amazon disputes it), and Jeff Bezos filed to sell $4.1B of shares right as the stock hit its record — worth watching, though founder sales near highs aren't unusual and aren't automatically a red flag.

The thread this week: last week's Q2 beats are still doing the heavy lifting for TSM and AMZN, but attention is shifting to what comes next — regulatory and insider-selling noise around AMZN, and a real test for BRK.B tomorrow when Abel reports without the safety net of an already-known beat, facing the standing succession and tech-exposure skepticism head-on.