The world's No. 1 chip foundry issued a statement saying that setting a company record for profits in 2010 is an internal target and should not be viewed as a financial forecast.

Morris Chang Chairman and CEO, TSMC

Following TSMC's third-quarter earnings announcement Thursday, Morris Chang, TSMC chairman and CEO, told analysts, "We expect 2010 to be a record year for TSMC." Chang later said he was referring to revenue and profit dollars.

TSMC's statement Friday quoted Lora Ho, chief financial officer, saying the profit record that Chang was referring to was set in 2006.

"However, he has also indicated internally that this profit goal will be adjusted by employee profit sharing expensing, which is currently 15 percent of net income," Ho said. "Using 2006 net income of NT$127 billion ($3.9 billion), the profit record that TSMC aims to break in 2010 will be NT$108 billion ($3.3 billion)."

On Thursday, TSMC reported a third-quarter net income of NT$30.55 billion ($938.2 million) on sales of NT$89.9 billion ($2.76 billion), the company's best numbers since the third quarter of 2008.