The global semiconductor market is projected to grow closer to the one trillion mark, bringing global semiconductor revenue to $975.5 billion in 2026, the latest forecast by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization suggests.

The researcher’s autumn 2025 forecast predicted the trend amid widespread semiconductor shortages, as it raised the 2025 growth outlook, now expecting the market to jump 22% in 2025, to $772 billion.

A stronger-than-predicted third quarter spurred the upward revision of nearly $45 billion (about 7% points) compared to the data provider’s summer 2025 update.

Memory, logic, and data-infrastructure semiconductors are leading the way. Logic is now projected to grow 37% and memory 28% amid AI acceleration and hyperscale infrastructure.

Also reviving with moderate recovery after the 2024 down-cycle are the sensors (+10%), microprocessors (+8%), analog (+7%), and optoelectronics (+4%) categories. Meanwhile, the discretes segment is expected to slip, due to ongoing weakness in automotive applications.

Regional semiconductor dynamics

When it comes to geographic spread, the Americas and Asia Pacific are expected to expand by 25 to 30%, led by the strides in logic and memory segments. At the same time, Europe is projected to grow 6%, while Japan is projected to decline by 4%.

The recently released Science, Technology and Industry Policy Papers by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) similarly showed that semiconductor production capacity is geographically concentrated, with the European region significantly lagging behind Asia and the U.S.

Commenting on these disparities, Jonas Sundqvist, CEO of AlixLabs and adjunct associate professor at Linköping University, said: “Global semiconductor wafer fabrication [the type that produces complete electrical or photonic circuits on semiconductor wafers] remains heavily concentrated in five economies – China, Chinese Taipei, Korea, Japan and the US – which together hold nearly 90% of worldwide capacity, leaving Europe as only the sixth-largest region with roughly two million wafer starts per month.”

Highlighting further issues with semiconductor production and supply, Sundqvist said that “[Europe’s] upcoming capacity growth is also limited compared with Asia and the US, especially in advanced logic and memory, where global dependence on a small number of specialized non-European fabs creates high supply-chain risk.”

Looking ahead to 2026, the WSTS forecasts growth across all regions and categories, with memory and logic projected to lead again, increasing by over 30% year-over-year. Most other segments are expected to continue a gradual recovery, expanding at a more moderate pace.

Regionally, all major markets are expected to grow, with the Americas and Asia Pacific remaining the strongest contributors, while Europe and Japan are forecast to see low double-digit growth.

The recent reports came just days after news that Nvidia is reportedly unbundling video RAM (VRAM) from its GPUs for the consumer and gaming market amid supply chain issues.

According to Weibo posts from leaker Golden Pig Upgrade, Nvidia is reportedly leaving add-in card (AIC) partners to source their own memory, potentially leading to large board partners turning to operators among Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, while likely prioritizing memory for the enterprise market.

“The demand is very strong right now,” Huang told Taiwanese media over Thanksgiving weekend. “We have complex memories … We don't have an abundance of anything, but our supply chain is very strong. We have the largest supply chain in the world, so if customers need supply, we will deliver it.”