The global semiconductor manufacturing equipment market is expected to grow to a record size in 2027 on the back of expanding investment in artificial intelligence (AI).
According to the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) on the 29th, global semiconductor manufacturing equipment sales are analyzed to reach $133 billion in 2025, up 13.7% from a year earlier, then $145 billion in 2026 and $156 billion in 2027, marking a record high.
SEMI said the growth is driven by broad-based increases in investment in advanced foundry (contract semiconductor manufacturing), memory, and advanced packaging on the back of rising AI demand. With equipment demand expanding simultaneously across all areas, the growth outlook for the equipment market has strengthened further.
Ajit Manocha, CEO of SEMI, said, "The global semiconductor equipment market will show three consecutive years of growth in both front-end and back-end processes and, in 2027, will surpass $150 billion for the first time ever," adding, "Investment to support AI demand is stronger than initially expected, so we raised the outlook across all sectors."
The wafer fab equipment (WFE) market set a record in 2024 at $14 billion and is estimated to reach $115.7 billion in 2025, up 11.0%. This is an upward revision from the previous mid-range outlook and reflects increased investment in DRAM and High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) due to rising AI compute demand, as well as capacity expansion in China. The wafer fab equipment market is expected to grow to $135.2 billion in 2027.
Semiconductor test equipment sales are expected to jump 48.1% in 2025 to $11.2 billion, and assembly and packaging equipment sales are expected to rise 19.6% to $6.4 billion. Wider adoption of advanced and heterogeneous packaging driven by the spread of AI and HBM is cited as the main reason.
In particular, foundry and logic equipment investment is expected to continue expanding through 2027 on the back of rising demand for AI accelerators and high-performance computing (HPC). The memory equipment market is also expected to see growth close to double digits through 2027, centered on increasing demand for HBM.
By country, China, Taiwan, and Korea are expected to remain the top three regions for semiconductor equipment investment through 2027. China will see some moderation in growth but maintain its status as the largest market, while Korea is expected to drive equipment demand by expanding investment in advanced memory, including HBM.