Market
Memory Doubled the Chip Market in One Year
World chip sales by product, 2025 to 2027
WSTS forecast in June 2026 that world chip sales would rise 89.9% in 2026, from $795.6 billion to $1,511.2 billion, and its August recalculation with second-quarter actuals raised that to about $1,655 billion, up about 108%. First-half 2026 sales were $702 billion, up 102%, with memory up 305% and logic up 45%. Gartner's August forecast is similar: $1,555 billion in 2026, with memory at $837 billion and 54% of all chip revenue, up from 27% in 2025.
Memory added $574 billion of the $716 billion rise in the WSTS spring forecast. The cause is AI data centers: DRAM makers moved wafers to HBM and server DRAM, and contract prices for everything else rose with them. Logic grew 37%, mostly AI accelerators made at TSMC. Analog, MCUs, discretes and sensors, the chips that cars, factories and grids buy, grew between 3% and 20%.
| Product | 2025 | Growth | 2026 forecast | Growth | 2027 forecast |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Memory | 230.0 | +39.0% | 803.9 | +249.5% | 1,062.1 |
| Logic | 299.5 | +38.8% | 411.4 | +37.3% | 522.8 |
| Micro (MCU, MPU) | 84.9 | +7.9% | 101.7 | +19.8% | 122.0 |
| Analog | 86.5 | +8.7% | 95.4 | +10.2% | 101.7 |
| Optoelectronics | 43.0 | +4.7% | 44.2 | +2.7% | 46.4 |
| Discretes | 30.7 | -1.0% | 33.2 | +8.0% | 35.7 |
| Sensors | 20.9 | +10.4% | 21.5 | +3.0% | 23.0 |
| Total | 795.6 | +26.2% | 1,511.2 | +89.9% | 1,913.7 |
Non-memory chips still grew: Gartner puts them at $718 billion in 2026, up 21.9% from $589 billion. The doubling of the headline number is a memory price event, not a doubling of chips shipped.
Buyers
AI Data Centers Buy More Than a Third of All Chips
Who sets demand, and which chip families each sector buys
Gartner estimates that the AI data center ecosystem takes 36.5% of semiconductor revenue in 2026 and more than 53% by 2030. Four US cloud companies set most of that demand: by July 2026 Alphabet guided $195 billion to $205 billion of 2026 capital spending, Amazon about $200 billion, Microsoft about $190 billion and Meta $125 billion to $145 billion, more than $700 billion together.
The sectors split into two supply chains. AI, data centers, phones and PCs buy leading-edge logic and memory, made by a few companies in Taiwan and Korea. Cars, robots, energy, wireless and defense spend most on analog, power, MCUs, sensors and compound semiconductors, made on mature nodes by many more companies, including US fabs run by Texas Instruments, Microchip, onsemi and the trusted foundries.
The chip types page explains the families; the fab pages show where each is made.
Cost
Every Other Sector Pays the Memory Bill
Memory prices passed through to phones, PCs and cars
Phones, PCs and cars were not the cause of the memory shortage, but they absorbed its prices. Counterpoint measured mobile DRAM prices up more than 50% and NAND up more than 90% in the first quarter of 2026 alone.
| Phone tier | Memory fitted | Memory share of BOM | Price effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low-end | 6GB LPDDR4X, 128GB eMMC | 43% (first quarter) | BOM up 25% in one quarter; about $30 more at retail |
| Mid-range ($400 to $600 wholesale) | 8GB LPDDR5X, 256GB UFS 4.0 | 25% in the first quarter, 36% in the second | Rising each quarter |
| Flagship | 16GB LPDDR5X, 512GB UFS 4.1 | 41% (second quarter) | BOM up $100 to $150; some retail prices up $150 to $200 |
- Phones. IDC forecast in February that 2026 smartphone shipments would fall 13%, and in August raised that to as much as 16.7%, with average prices up 26.7% to about $581.
- PCs. IDC forecast in March that PC shipments would fall 11.3% while revenue rose 1.6% on higher prices. HP said RAM is 35% of a laptop's build cost.
- Cars. Automotive chips are about 10% of the market (Gartner). Analysts put the added DRAM cost of a premium electric car at about $880 to $1,470 (EE Times Asia, May 2026).
- Large cloud buyers. Several US cloud companies hold long-term memory agreements that limit price increases (TrendForce, July 2026), so the rises fall hardest on smaller buyers.
Sectors
Each Sector Has One Constraint That Shapes It
Main chips, constraint and US status by sector
The table lists each sector's main chips, the constraint that shapes its supply in 2026 and where its main chips are made. The US status column rates the sector's most important chip, not every part in it.
- Made in US
- Some US volume
- Made abroad
| Sector | Main chips | Constraint in 2026 | Where the main chips are made | US status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI and Machine Learning | GPUs, custom ASICs, HBM | CoWoS packaging and HBM supply | TSMC Taiwan; first logic dies in Arizona | Some US volume |
| Datacenter and HPC | Server CPUs, DRAM, SSDs, network chips | Server CPUs short again; DRAM prices | Intel Xeon in Arizona and Oregon; rest Taiwan, Korea | Some US volume |
| Automotive and Mobility | MCUs, power, sensors, ADAS SoCs | Mature-node supply and now DRAM | Mostly Taiwan, Europe, Japan; TI and Microchip in US | Some US volume |
| Robotics and IoT | Edge SoCs, motor drivers, IMUs, MCUs | NVIDIA Jetson Thor and Chinese assembly | Taiwan for compute; China for robots | Made abroad |
| Humanoid Semiconductor Stack | Compute, motor drive, sensors, BMS | Actuator and magnet supply | Taiwan and China | Made abroad |
| Mobile and Consumer | Phone SoCs, LPDDR, NAND, RF front ends | Memory now 25% to 43% of a phone's BOM | TSMC Taiwan; memory Korea and China | Made abroad |
| PC | CPUs, DRAM, SSDs | RAM is 35% of a laptop's build cost (HP) | Intel in US and Ireland; AMD, Apple, Qualcomm at TSMC | Some US volume |
| 5G, 6G and Wireless | RF filters, PAs, baseband, GaN | Acoustic filters held by four makers | Broadcom, Qorvo, Skyworks fabs in US | Some US volume |
| Energy and Solar | Solar cells, SiC and IGBT power | China makes most polysilicon and cells | China; US cell plants ramping | Made abroad |
| Space and Defense | Rad-hard logic, FPGAs, RF, power | Trusted US fabs and qualification time | US trusted foundries; some offshore parts | Made in US |
China
China Exposure Runs Through Mature Chips and Assembly
Where China sits in each sector's supply
The leading-edge sectors depend on Taiwan and Korea; China's role there is limited by export controls, and its own AI chips run on SMIC and stockpiled memory (see China Bifurcation). China's weight is larger in the mature-node sectors: it makes most of the world's polysilicon and solar cells, a growing share of power devices and SiC substrates, and it assembles most phones, robots and consumer devices. Cars and robots also depend on Chinese rare earth magnets and gallium, covered on Critical Elements.
The demand side is covered for each end product on the sister site ElectronsX, and for data center facilities on DatacentersX.
Record
Page Record
- Covers
- World chip sales by product 2025 to 2027, the AI data center share, the memory cost pass-through to phones, PCs and cars, the chip families each sector buys, and the constraint and US status for each sector.
- Sources
- WSTS Spring 2026 forecast (June 2026) and second-quarter recalculation (August 6, 2026); Bits&Chips (June 3 and August 11, 2026); Gartner semiconductor forecast (August 25, 2026, via Bloomingbit and IT Pro); Cryptobriefing on 2026 capital spending guidance (July 24, 2026); Counterpoint on smartphone BOM (March 2026, via Malaysian Wireless); IDC smartphone forecasts (February and August 2026, via Tom's Guide and Android Headlines) and PC forecast (March 3, 2026); HP via Tom's Guide; EE Times Asia (May 25, 2026); TrendForce server DRAM (July 9, 2026). The sector matrix and the sector table's US status are SemiconductorX assessments.
- Last verified
- October 2026