SEMI‘s Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG) just reported that worldwide silicon wafer shipments are forecast to rise by 11.8% in 2026 to 14,420 million square inches (MSI), boosted by:
- Strong AI-related demand
- Supporting advanced epitaxial wafers for leading-edge logic and polished wafers for memory applications
- Memory demand extending beyond high-bandwidth memory (HBM) to server DRAM and enterprise NAND flash
- Recovering mature-node utilization and easing customer inventory adjustments
Shipments are expected to reach successive record highs from 2027 through 2029, rising to 17,034 MSI by the end of the forecast period. Looking ahead, continued expansion of AI infrastructure is expected to underpin silicon wafer demand growth through 2029.
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