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SEOUL – The global semiconductor industry is rewriting its growth timeline. Driven by an insatiable appetite for Artificial Intelligence (AI) infrastructure, the market reached a historic $830 billion in 2025 and is now on a clear trajectory to shatter the $1 trillion ceiling as early as this year.
According to the latest data from global market research firm Omdia, the semiconductor sector grew by 23.3% year-over-year in 2025. This marks the first time since Omdia began tracking the industry in 2001 that the market has sustained a growth rate exceeding 20% for two consecutive years.
The AI Catalyst and the Memory Surge
The narrative of 2025 remained dominated by AI. While the initial boom was centered on specialized AI chips, the impact has now permeated the broader memory landscape. High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), essential for AI processing, saw significant price appreciation, which sparked a chain reaction across the DRAM market.
"In 2024, AI-driven demand drove up HBM prices, but that influence is now expanding across the entire DRAM sector," noted Lino Jeng, Senior Analyst at Omdia. "AI servers require not only HBM but also massive amounts of system memory, specifically DDR5 DRAM."
This shift resulted in DRAM revenues exceeding $150 billion last year, representing a staggering 50% increase compared to 2024. As prices for both memory and system semiconductors continue to rise in early 2026, industry consensus suggests that the $1 trillion mark is no longer a distant dream but an imminent reality.
A Four-Year Acceleration
The speed of this expansion has caught many experts by surprise. As recently as 2023, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) projected that the industry would reach the $1 trillion mark by 2030. If Omdia’s current forecasts hold true, the industry will achieve this milestone four years ahead of schedule. This acceleration highlights how deeply AI integration has integrated into the global economy, moving from a niche tech trend to a fundamental structural shift.
The Polarized Leaderboard
Omdia’s report also highlighted a growing divide between the industry's titans and the rest of the field. The top 10 semiconductor companies saw an average growth rate of 30.4% in 2025, while companies outside the top 10 grew by a more modest 10.7%.
NVIDIA: Solidified its dominance as the world’s largest chipmaker, reporting $150.3 billion in revenue—a 54.3% jump from the previous year.
Samsung Electronics: Retained the No. 2 position with $85.7 billion in revenue, up 14.2%.
SK Hynix: Secured the No. 3 spot, fueled by its leadership in the HBM market.
Intel: Stood out as the sole outlier among the top 10, recording a 3.7% decline in revenue, highlighting the challenges faced by traditional CPU manufacturers in an AI-centric era.
Outlook for 2026
With system semiconductor prices also on the rise and AI applications expanding from data centers to "Edge AI" in smartphones and PCs, the momentum shows no signs of flagging. Analysts suggest that as long as the 20% growth threshold is maintained, 2026 will be remembered as the year the semiconductor industry became a trillion-dollar cornerstone of the global economy.
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