Stock Markets February 6, 2026

Semiconductor Sales Poised to Reach $1 Trillion as AI Data Center Build-Out Drives Demand

Industry group reports strong 2025 gains led by advanced computing and memory chips, with optimism for near-term order books despite build-out uncertainty

By Jordan Park INTC
Semiconductor Sales Poised to Reach $1 Trillion as AI Data Center Build-Out Drives Demand
INTC

The Semiconductor Industry Association projects global chip revenue will surpass $1 trillion in the current year after sales rose to $791.7 billion in 2025, a 25.6% increase from the prior year. Advanced computing chips and memory led gains, supported by large-scale spending on AI-focused data center capacity. Industry leaders and smaller suppliers report full order books for the coming year, though longer-term outcomes of the AI build-out remain uncertain.

Key Points

  • Global semiconductor sales reached $791.7 billion in 2025, a 25.6% increase from 2024, and are projected to exceed $1 trillion this year.
  • Advanced computing chips were the largest and fastest-growing segment, rising 39.9% to $301.9 billion in 2025; memory chips were the second-largest, up 34.8% to $223.1 billion.
  • The surge is being driven by massive data center investments for AI, with many firms reporting full order books and strong near-term demand.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) said global semiconductor revenue is on track to top $1 trillion this year following a substantial increase in 2025. According to the trade group that represents the bulk of U.S. chip makers, total chip sales reached $791.7 billion in 2025, up 25.6% from the year before.

SIA attributed the robust expansion in large part to an industry-wide investment surge as major technology companies allocate hundreds of billions of dollars toward expanding data center capacity tailored for artificial intelligence workloads. Those investments have underpinned demand across multiple chip categories.

The fastest-growing and largest segment was advanced computing chips - the high-performance processors used in AI training and inference - produced by firms including Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and Intel. Sales of these advanced computing products climbed 39.9% in 2025, totaling $301.9 billion.

Memory chips comprised the second-largest category by revenue. Memory prices have been rising amid what the SIA described as an AI-related shortage, and memory sales increased 34.8% to $223.1 billion in 2025.

Industry sentiment extended beyond the largest suppliers. John Neuffer, president and chief executive of the Washington, D.C.-based industry group, said that during recent visits to Silicon Valley he heard optimism from executives at a range of smaller firms about the coming year.

"The refrain I heard was, 'No one knows what's going to happen with the AI build out a year from now, but my orders are completely full,'" Neuffer said. "At least for the next year, we're on a pretty, pretty strong glide path."

The SIA's figures highlight how concentrated growth has been in compute- and memory-oriented segments of the market, reflecting the direct hardware needs of large-scale AI deployments. While the group pointed to a strong near-term outlook based on current order books and customer commitments, it also noted that uncertainty remains around how the AI build-out will evolve beyond the immediate horizon.

For market participants, these results underscore the immediate benefits to companies supplying advanced processors and memory, and the broader implications for data center investment and cloud infrastructure providers that are absorbing the bulk of AI-driven capital spending.


Note: This report summarizes the SIA's stated sales figures and the comments attributed to the industry's CEO, reflecting the association's assessment of market conditions and sector trends for 2025 and expectations into the current year.

Risks

  • Uncertainty in the AI build-out beyond the near term - executives reported full order books for the coming year but acknowledged the outlook a year out is unknown, introducing execution and demand risk for 2026 and later.
  • Rising memory prices and an AI-related shortage in memory chips create supply and cost risks for downstream hardware purchasers and cloud infrastructure operators.
  • Concentration of growth in compute- and memory-oriented segments ties industry performance closely to the pace and scale of AI data center spending, exposing other parts of the semiconductor market to demand variability.

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