SEMI, a US-based semiconductor supply chain industry association, said on July 21 that global semiconductor equipment sales will rise 23.2% year on year to US$165.9 billion in 2026 and reach a record US$229.5 billion by 2028. That would mark five years of growth, driven by spending on AI infrastructure, high-bandwidth memory (HBM), and advanced logic chips.

Wafer fab equipment sales are forecast to reach US$143.9 billion this year, including US$78 billion for foundry and logic, US$38.8 billion for dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), and US$13.9 billion for NAND.

The growth comes as chipmakers move toward high-volume manufacturing at the 2-nanometer gate-all-around node and expand advanced memory capacity.

SEMI expects China, Taiwan, and South Korea to remain the top semiconductor equipment markets through 2028, with China staying the largest, although its growth is expected to slow after unusually high investment in recent years.

SEMI said the stronger outlook reflects rising investment in leading-edge logic, advanced memory, and back-end technologies.

Separately, TrendForce said Samsung and SK hynix plan to invest 800 trillion won (US$536 billion) in four South Korean fabs and 81 trillion won (US$54.3 billion) in a packaging hub.

🔗 Source: Chosun Daily