According to the latest statistics released by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), global semiconductor sales reached $75.3 billion in November 2025, a 3.5% increase month-over-month and a 29.8% increase year-over-year. This marks not only the second consecutive month of growth but also a new all-time high. The SIA points out that this growth is not driven by a single product line but rather by simultaneous expansion in demand across all major semiconductor categories, indicating that the global chip market is entering a new long-term expansion cycle centered on artificial intelligence (AI).

In terms of regional performance, the Asia-Pacific region remains the main driver of this round of growth, with sales in November increasing by 66.1% year-on-year and 5% month-on-month, the highest growth rate globally, reflecting the continued effects of full-scale manufacturing capacity utilization and supply chain restructuring. The Americas market saw a 23% year-on-year increase and a 3% month-on-month increase, indicating that investment in AI computing power and data centers remains strong. The Chinese mainland market maintained steady growth, with a 22.9% year-on-year increase and a 3.9% month-on-month increase. The European market saw relatively moderate growth but remained positive, while Japan was the only major market to experience a decline, decreasing by 8.9% year-on-year and 0.1% month-on-month.

Asia-Pacific growth rate

The Asia-Pacific region saw a remarkable 66.1% year-on-year growth, becoming the strongest engine of global semiconductor growth. This figure reflects the full-scale activation of manufacturing capacity in South Korea, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. Samsung and SK Hynix's high-bandwidth memory (HBM) production lines are operating at full capacity, with related capacity already booked in advance; TSMC's advanced process orders are already booked until 2027.

Furthermore, emerging manufacturing bases in Southeast Asia, such as Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand, are receiving a large number of packaging and testing orders, indicating that the regional semiconductor supply chain is undergoing rapid restructuring. The Asia-Pacific region is not only a manufacturing hub but is also gradually becoming the center of the value chain.

The Americas market saw a 23% year-on-year growth, lower than the Asia-Pacific region, but still demonstrating strong resilience given the already high base. Nvidia's Blackwell architecture AI chips continue to be in short supply, and data center construction plans by Microsoft, Google, and Amazon show no signs of slowing down. Combined with the expansion of Tesla's Dojo supercomputer and OpenAI's computing power, this creates stable and continuous demand for high-end chips.

The consumer electronics market is shrinking

Japan was the only major market to experience negative growth, declining 8.9% year-on-year. The reasons behind this included a shrinking consumer electronics market, with brands like Sony and Panasonic seeing a decline in global market share; weakening demand for automotive chips, with Toyota and Honda's electrification progress falling short of expectations; and while the semiconductor equipment and materials business remained competitive, it couldn't compensate for weak end-user demand. Furthermore, the depreciation of the yen increased the cost of imported chips, further suppressing domestic demand.

The SIA pointed out that this record sales was not driven by a single product, but rather by a simultaneous recovery across the entire product line. Logic chips benefited from continued strong demand for AI training and inference; in memory, tight supply of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) drove both prices and shipments up; analog and power semiconductors were boosted by demand from industrial automation, new energy vehicles, and power management; and optoelectronic components also benefited from the expansion of high-speed interconnects and sensing applications in data centers.

Monthly sales surpassed the $75 billion mark for the first time, significantly higher than the high of approximately $55 billion during the chip shortage in 2021. Looking back at 2019, global semiconductor monthly sales averaged between $35 billion and $40 billion, nearly doubling in just a few years, reflecting that semiconductors have become a core foundational industry supporting AI, cloud computing, and intelligent applications.

The market generally believes that this round of growth is driven by the AI computing power arms race, the data center expansion boom, the surge in demand for high-bandwidth memory, and long-term structural demand from automotive electronics and energy transition, making the semiconductor industry no longer solely dependent on the consumer electronics cycle.

World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) estimates

The World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) forecasts that global semiconductor sales will reach $975.4 billion in 2026, a 22.5% year-on-year increase, just shy of the $1 trillion mark. Industry experts believe that as long as AI investment, data center construction, and the trend towards intelligent vehicles do not show a significant cooling, the semiconductor market will continue to have room for expansion.

From an investment perspective, the long-term growth of the semiconductor industry is mainly driven by the following five core factors:

1. The AI Computing Power Arms Race Continues to Escalate

Large-scale models, edge AI, and automation applications continue to drive demand for GPUs and AI accelerators.

2. High Capital Expenditure in Data Centers Remains Unabated

Global tech giants are allocating 60-70% of their capital expenditure to data centers, creating long-term order visibility.

3. Limited HBM Supply Leads to Structurally High Gross Margins

HBM has become a bottleneck for AI performance, giving companies with technological barriers long-term pricing power.

4. Consumer Electronics Ends Inventory Reduction Cycle

Recovering demand for smartphones and PCs provides stable supplementary momentum to the non-AI sectors of the industry.

5. Automotive Intelligence Becomes a Second Growth Curve

The use of chips in new energy vehicles has increased significantly, making automotive semiconductors a new long-term growth area.

The most crucial investment signal in this round of semiconductor boom lies in the significantly accelerated industry consolidation. Companies with technological barriers and scale advantages are rapidly widening the gap with their competitors.

Main beneficiaries

Nvidia: Core of the AI computing ecosystem, leading GPU and platform standards

TSMC: The only reliable supplier of advanced processes, with the longest order visibility

Samsung and SK Hynix: Monopolize key HBM supply, significantly improving gross profit structure

Broadcom: Explosive demand for AI networks and customized ASICs, its role is irreplaceable

Relative pressured players:

Intel: Transformation in progress, but lagging AI and process technology continue to limit valuation recovery.

Micron: Slow HBM deployment limits short-term competitiveness.

Most Japanese chip manufacturers: Weak end-user demand caused them to miss the current main upward trend.

For investors, the current semiconductor market is no longer experiencing a "comprehensive rebound," but rather a new phase characterized by "structural growth coupled with high differentiation." AI, data centers, and intelligent vehicles offer clear long-term directions, but only companies positioned at key points in the value chain can truly translate this into sustainable profit growth.

Source: Juheng.com

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