- Sales of WFE, NAND and DRAM all grew more strongly than expected this year
- China, Taiwan and Korea remain the epicenter of chip manufacturing
- Semiconductor market surpasses $200 billion in quarterly revenue
Global sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment are expected to reach $133 billion in 2025, an increase of 13.7% year-over-year, and the figures are expected to climb to $145 billion by 2026 and $156 billion by 2027.
The figures come from a new SEMI report, which warns that semiconductor manufacturing tools could enter a period of rapid cost inflation driven by AI tool and cloud computing workloads.
According to the data, Wafer Fab Equipment (WFE) costs are increasing “as the industry moves toward high-volume manufacturing at the 2nm gate-all-around (GAA) node.”
High-performance computing is about to get a lot more expensive
After seeing 9.8% growth in WFE sales this year, SEMI forecasts two consecutive years of growth of 5.5% and 6.6% as chipmakers add capacity for AI accelerators, high-performance computing and high-end mobile processors.
Demand for high-bandwidth memory is also pushing memory-related investments upward, with the NAND equipment market expected to grow by approximately 45.4% this year alone. Sales of DRAM equipment could also see an increase of 15.4% this year.
“Investments to support demand for AI have been greater than expected since our mid-year forecast, leading us to improve the outlook for all segments,” explained Ajit Manocha, CEO of SEMI.
Most capital spending is expected to be concentrated around China, Taiwan and Korea for the foreseeable future, but all regions tracked are expected to see growth over the two-year period for which SEMI has released its forecast.
Separately, Omdia recorded a 14.5% quarter-over-quarter increase in semiconductor market revenue, surpassing the $200 billion mark (and reaching $216.3 billion) for the first time ever.
“Conventional DRAM demand is growing alongside HBM as AI inference workloads increase, leading to exceptional near-term price growth,” noted Lino Jeng, senior principal analyst.
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