What is a cash flow waterfall?

A cash flow waterfall is a bar chart that walks from operating cash flow through capital expenditure to free cash flow, then shows how the remaining cash is allocated — acquisitions, buybacks, dividends, debt, and other financing — ending at the net change in cash. Each step is colour-coded: green bars add to the running total, red bars subtract.

How does TSMC (TSM) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, TSMC generated 2.68T TWD of operating cash flow and 1.19T TWD of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 44.4% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did TSMC (TSM) return via buybacks and dividends?

The waterfall shows buybacks (share repurchases) and dividends paid as separate steps in the financing section. Together these represent TSMC's shareholder returns for TTM through Q2 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

TSMC (TSM) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

2.68T TWD

Capex

-1.49T TWD

Free Cash Flow

1.19T TWD

FCF Margin

+44.4%

Cash flow waterfall for TSMC (TSM) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: 1.19T TWD

Cash flow breakdown for TSMC (TSM) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	2.68T TWD	2.68T TWD
Capital Expenditure	-1.49T TWD	1.19T TWD
Free Cash Flow	1.19T TWD	1.19T TWD
Other Investing	-39.5B TWD	1.15T TWD
Dividends Paid	-532B TWD	621B TWD
Other Financing & FX	23.3B TWD	644B TWD
Net Cash Increase	644B TWD	644B TWD

Operating Cash Flow2.68T TWD
Capital Expenditure-1.49T TWD
Free Cash Flow1.19T TWD
Other Investing-39.5B TWD
Dividends Paid-532B TWD
Other Financing & FX23.3B TWD
Net Cash Increase644B TWD

Want to see what drove the FCF change?Free Cash Flow Bridge

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