TAIPEI, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (2330.TW) the main producer of advanced chips used in artificial intelligence applications, is expected to report a 40% leap in third-quarter profit on Thursday thanks to soaring demand.

The world’s largest contract chipmaker, whose customers include Apple (AAPL.O) and Nvidia (NVDA.O) has benefited from the surge towards AI.

TSMC is set to report a net profit of T$298.2 billion ($9.27 billion) for the quarter ended Sept. 30, according to a LSEG SmartEstimate drawn from 22 analysts. SmartEstimates give greater weighting to forecasts from analysts who are more consistently accurate.