The sector is expected to grow 7% this year and 9% in 2026 to reach $116bn, a 4% increase in 2027 followed by a 15% increase and total worldwide expenditure of $138bn in 2028. Over the next three years, total expenditure will be $374bn, said Clark Tseng, director of industry research and statistics at SEMI (pictured), speaking at Semicon West in Phoenix, Arizona.

“To put this number into perspective, the total semiconductor industry capex is around $280bn, so you can imagine how much of this capex will be channeled into the infrastructure, semiconductors, AI semiconductors and all the hardware that is going to be built around AI,” he said.

The cyclical nature of the semiconductor industry means that the growth rate will taper but despite that SEMI projects that the industry will register over $1trn by 2030. “By then, we expect AI semiconductors’ share to be close to 50%, about $500bn,” said Tseng.

AI investment is beginning to be seen at the edge where it will provide more localised processing in vehicles, smart cities and automation, Tseng explained. “Inference will no longer be limited to the datacentre, but will spread to the cloud and the edge in the next three to five years. This will mean investment in new equipment related to AI and HPC increasing by 45% in the next two years and by 55% by 2030, he predicted.

By: DocMemory
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