SEMI released the "Mid-Year Semiconductor Equipment Market Forecast – OEM Perspective" on Tuesday, predicting that total global semiconductor manufacturing equipment sales will grow for five consecutive years, reaching $229.5 billion by 2028.
AI-driven demand is reshaping semiconductor manufacturing investment, with significant funding flowing into AI infrastructure, advanced logic chips, memory, and backend technologies such as packaging. This year, global OEM semiconductor equipment sales will hit a record $165.9 billion, up 23.2% YoY.
SEMI President and CEO Ajit Manocha said that AI is accelerating demand for more powerful and efficient chips, driving investment growth in the semiconductor equipment market.
Report Details: By segment, wafer fab equipment posted a sales record of $116.9 billion last year and is expected to grow 23.1% to $143.9 billion by 2026. This segment includes wafer processing, photomasks/reticles, and fab equipment, and this forecast is a significant upward revision from SEMI's previous projections.
As manufacturers accelerate capacity expansion and technology migration, SEMI expects this segment's sales to grow 21.8% in 2027 and 14.1% in 2028, reaching the $200 billion mark.
Backend equipment is also thriving. After surging 55.3% in 2025, semiconductor test equipment sales are expected to grow 31.0% in 2026 to $15.3 billion, a significant upward revision from SEMI's previous end-2025 forecast, and further increase to $20.8 billion by 2028.
More granularly, after packaging equipment sales grew 20.8% in 2025, SEMI expects 9.6% growth in 2026 to $6.7 billion, largely in line with previous forecasts. This growth momentum is expected to continue through 2028, driven by increased device complexity, the adoption of advanced heterogeneous packaging technologies, and higher performance and reliability requirements.
Additionally, with 2nm processes entering mass production, SEMI estimates that foundry and CPU manufacturing equipment sales will grow 18.9% this year to $78 billion, and could exceed $100 billion by 2028. The memory market will grow 39% this year to $13.9 billion and reach $20.8 billion by 2028.
From a regional perspective, Mainland China, Taiwan, and South Korea will be the top three regions in equipment spending, with Mainland China maintaining its leading position. Taiwan will benefit mainly from advanced capacity construction in AI and high-performance computing, while South Korea will increase memory-related investments.
