Silicon Analytica
Semiconductor market research and industry figures
SK hynix's preliminary third-quarter revenue topped KRW 100 trillion (~US$74.5 billion) for the first time, with an operating margin of about 80%. Price increases, not only volume, are behind the margins.
Background source: SK hynix
Global semiconductor sales reached $517.7 billion in Q3 2026, up 24.1% on the quarter, as September alone hit $172.6 billion.
Background source: Semiconductor Industry Association
A plain-language guide to the steps, the places and the bottlenecks, with the evidence and the caveats.
Background source: TrendForce, WSTS, SIA, McKinsey, IEA and company reports
Q3 2026 results trace one chain: hyperscaler capital spending, record ASML and TSMC quarters, and memory margins near 80%. Global chip sales reached $517.7 billion.
Background source: Semiconductor Industry Association
Wall Street rallied on the election result, then turned on the AI trade. Semiconductors took the hardest hit, even though nothing in the industry's reported numbers changed this week.
Background source: CNBC / Investing.com / Reuters / Yahoo Finance / StockTitan
TrendForce expects AI server revenue to almost double in 2027 while shipments rise about a third. The gap shows how much of the boom is higher value per system.
Background source: TrendForce
Each new forecast has been far higher than the last. What the revisions show, and what they do not.
Background source: WSTS Q2 2026 release (primary), 6 Aug 2026
How process complexity, service revenue and changing competition shape the economics of semiconductor equipment.
Background source: Applied Materials, Master Class presentation (8 April 2026), p. 11; Morningstar (October 2025), p. 29, Exhibit 27; Georgetown CSET (15 September 2026)
A visual guide to lithography, etch, deposition and the companies supplying the machines behind semiconductor manufacturing.
Background source: Morningstar, Technology Observer: Wafer Fabrication Equipment (October 2025), p. 25, Exhibit 23; SEMI forecast (14 July 2026)
The new base case is 44% higher than before, while expected wafer volume growth is little changed.
Background source: Bits&Chips report on McKinsey forecast (secondary), 29 Sep 2026
Two forecasters point to memory as a main driver of growth, and both tie it to new capacity.
Background source: WSTS Spring 2026 forecast release (primary), early June 2026 — exact date to confirm
Accelerators dominate the value of a representative AI rack. Lower-cost chips still underpin its operation.
Background source: SIA & Deloitte, Powering AI (June 2026)
A rack’s supporting trays rely on different process generations. System dependence reaches beyond leading-edge silicon.
Background source: SIA & Deloitte, Powering AI (June 2026)
Shared research infrastructure connects prototypes with manufacturing. Funding allocations show priorities, not completed commercial output.
Background source: SIA, Semiconductor R&D Programs (June 2025)
Serving an AI model creates a different economic problem from building one.
Background source: NVIDIA · FY2025 results · 26 February 2025
SIA's annual industry report confirms a record year, driven by logic and memory chips for AI. The forecast for 2026 points even higher, but SIA's own figures differ between documents.
More than half of the chips in an AI data center server sit in the lowest price bucket. The pricing breakdown shows why the cheap end of the chip market matters.
Background source: SIA & Deloitte, Powering AI: The Semiconductor Ecosystem at the Foundation of Data Centers
A die-by-die breakdown of an AI server rack shows that cutting-edge process technology is concentrated in one tray, while power, cooling and management functions rely on older nodes.
Background source: SIA & Deloitte, Powering AI: The Semiconductor Ecosystem at the Foundation of Data Centers
The latest finalized 2025 annual release identified from WSTS puts chip sales above SIA’s earlier $791.7B announcement. The distinction matters when comparing growth across reports.
Fiscal 2026 revenue rose 65%, and the first half of fiscal 2027 has kept accelerating. How durable is demand for accelerated computing?
Source: NVIDIA · Q4 and fiscal 2026 results · 25 February 2026
Fabs get the headlines, but a separate cycle of research programs connects early innovation to pilot production and high-volume manufacturing. A 2025 SIA report describes how the US CHIPS research programs are meant to work.
Background source: SIA, Semiconductor R&D Programs: Essential Innovation for U.S. Technology Leadership
A 2024 report by SIA and BCG projected about $2.3 trillion of private investment in wafer fabrication between 2024 and 2032 — more than three times the previous decade. The geography of capacity is expected to shift with it.
Background source: SIA & BCG, Emerging Resilience in the Semiconductor Supply Chain