① Global semiconductor industry in October Sales surged 33% year-on-year to a total of $71.3 billion, with DRAM sales soaring 90% to $12.82 billion;② The biggest driving force behind these figures is: artificial intelligence. AI is driving a surge in demand, but production capacity is not keeping up.
Wells Fargo According to the latest data from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIASIA), cited by Wells Fargo, global semiconductor sales surged 33% year-on-year in October, reaching a total of $71.3 billion.
Global DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) sales surged 90% year-on-year to $12.82 billion, making it the biggest driver of this growth. Major DRAM manufacturers include Micron Technology . Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Additionally, NAND flash memory sales increased by 13% year-on-year, totaling $5.13 billion.
In an industry report, Wells Fargo analysts led by Aaron Rakers stated, "We note that the SIA has significantly revised its September NAND flash memory shipment forecast—which could mean a decrease in price per GB. Given the current market dynamics, we believe this assessment is debatable."
Other data also shows:
Microprocessor (MPU) sales reached $5.98 billion in October, a 16% year-over-year increase. However, despite the sales growth, total MPU shipments declined by 4% year-over-year.
Analog chips performed even stronger, with sales increasing by 18% year-over-year to $7.93 billion and shipments increasing by 11% year-over-year.
Microcontroller (MCU) sales increased by 18% year-over-year to $1.88 billion, while shipments increased by 21% year-over-year.
Sales of MOSFET power devices increased by 19% year-on-year to $1.02 billion.
The biggest driving force behind these data is that artificial intelligence (AI) is driving a surge in demand, but production capacity cannot keep up.
Analysts point out that a significant amount of industry capacity is currently shifting to high-bandwidth memory used in AI accelerators. (HBM) has led to a reduction in wafer output for both standard DRAM and 3D NAND. Given that building new capacity will take several years, a substantial improvement is unlikely before the end of 2027 or 2028.
It's important to know that DRAM is currently the most widely used volatile semiconductor memory chip in the world. As the core operating memory of electronic devices, DRAM enables high-speed random access to data and is widely used in servers, mobile phones, PCs, and other scenarios requiring high-speed data processing.
HBM is a high-performance DRAM based on 3D stacking technology and is a core component for artificial intelligence applications. With the explosion of the AI industry, its demand is also growing rapidly.
Against this backdrop, memory chip manufacturer Micron Technology recently announced the closure of its retail channel business, with existing inventory to be sold until the end of the second quarter of this fiscal year (February 2026). The company will focus on competing in the advanced memory chip market in the AI era.
Sumit Sadana, Executive Vice President and Chief Business Officer of Micron Technology , stated: " Data Centers... " AI-driven growth has led to a surge in demand for memory and storage. We made the difficult decision to exit Crucial's consumer business in order to improve supply and support for our large strategic customers in faster-growing sectors.
(Article source: CLS)
