Semiconductor Intelligence estimates total semiconductor industry capital spending (CapEx) was $166 billion in 2025, up 7% from 2024. We estimate 2026 CapEx will be $200 billion, up 20% from 2025. TSMC was the largest spender in 2024 with $40.9 billion in CapEx, 25% of the total. TSMC projects 2026 CapEx will be between $52 billion… Read More
Author: Bill Jewell
CapEx Up for Foundry, Memory
AI Drives Strong Semiconductor Market in 2025-2026
The global semiconductor market in 2025 was $792 billion, according to WSTS. 2025 was up 25.6% from 2024, the strongest growth since 26.2% in the COVID recovery year 2021. The increase was driven by AI, with Nvidia revenues up 65%. The major memory companies (Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron Technology, Kioxia and Sandisk) all cited AI… Read More
AI Bubble?
The currently strong semiconductor market is being driven by AI applications. A McKinsey survey showed 88% of businesses used AI in 2025 compared to just 55% in 2023. According to Inc.com, 306 of the S&P 500 companies mentioned AI in their third quarter 2025 earnings conference calls, up from only 53 citations three years earlier… Read More
Semiconductors Up Over 20% in 2025
The world semiconductor market was $208 billion in third-quarter 2025, according to WSTS. This marks the first time the market has been above $200 billion. 3Q 2025 was up 15.8% from 2Q 2025, the highest quarter-to-quarter growth since 19.9% in 2Q 2009. 3Q 2025 was up 25.1% from 3Q 2024, the highest growth versus a year earlier since… Read More
U.S. Electronics Production Growing
U.S. electronics production has been on an accelerating growth trend over the last ten months. Three-month average change versus a year ago (3/12 change) has increased from 0.4% in October 2024 to 6.2% in August 2025. Japan’s 3/12 change has been positive since November 2024, but has been decelerating for most of 2025, reaching… Read More
Semiconductor Equipment Spending Healthy
Global spending on semiconductor manufacturing equipment totaled $33.07 billion in the 2nd quarter of 2025, according to SEMI and SEAJ. 2Q 2025 spending was up 23% from 2Q 2024. China had the largest spending at $11.36 billion, 34% of the total. However, China spending in 2Q 2025 was down 7% from 2Q 2024. Taiwan had the second largest… Read More
Semiconductors Still Strong in 2025
The global semiconductor market in 2Q 2025 was $180 billion, up 7.8% from 1Q 2025 and up 19.6% from 2Q 2024, according to WSTS. 2Q 2025 marked the sixth consecutive quarter with year-to-year growth of over 18%.
The table below shows the top twenty semiconductor companies by revenue. The list includes companies which sell devices… Read More
U.S. Imports Shifting
Our Semiconductor Intelligence June Newsletter showed how U.S. imports of smartphones have been on a downward trend since January 2025, led by China. Other key electronic products have also experienced sharp drops in U.S. imports from China.F
U.S. smartphone imports in May 2025 were $3.03 billion, up slightly from April but … Read More
Electronics Up, Smartphones down
Electronics production in key Asian countries has been steady to increasing in the last several months. In April 2025, China electronics production three-month-average change versus a year ago (3/12) was 11.5%, up from 9.5% in January but below the average 3/12 of 12% in 2024. India showed the strongest growth, with 3/12 of 15%… Read More
Semiconductor Market Uncertainty
WSTS reported 1st quarter 2025 semiconductor market revenues of $167.7 billion, up 18.8% from a year earlier and down 2.8% from the prior quarter. The first quarter of 2025 was weak for most major semiconductor companies. Ten of the sixteen companies in the table below had declines in revenue versus 4Q 2024, ranging from -0.1% from… Read More
Musk’s Orbital Compute Vision: TERAFAB and the End of the Terrestrial Data Center