Global chip market expected to surpass $1tr by 2030: Gartner
Samsung CTO says AI has 'much to learn' to match human brain
The global semiconductor market is forecast to surpass an annual $1 trillion by 2030-31, backed by robust demand for advanced chips in artificial intelligence data centers and rising memory product prices, according to a market analysis on Wednesday.
Delivering the market outlook at the Semicon Korea 2025 event, Gartner Vice President and senior analyst Gaurav Gupta also noted that sales of high-bandwith memory, the cutting-edge memory chip that undergirds artificial intelligence, will jump more than 60 percent this year.
"Last year, the semiconductor market grew by 18.1 percent in terms of revenue, mainly backed by rising memory prices and increasing demand for AI chips," Gupta said.
For this year, Gupta predicted the market will grow 12.7 percent to reach $705 billion, driven by an increase in sales of not only the graphics processing units and AI processors that led last year's growth, but also analog semiconductors. The market volume is expected to grow to $829 billion by 2028.
"AI memory prices will rise due to supply shortages, while the growth of the automotive chip market, with advanced driver-assistance systems and automotive high-performance computing, will also contribute to the overall performance this year," Gupta said.
HBM chips, which are dominated by Korean chipmakers SK hynix and Samsung Electronics, are expected to experience robust growth this year, making up about 30.6 percent of the total DRAM revenue, according to the analyst.
On an on-year basis, HBM sales are expected to jump 67 percent this year. Last year's annual revenue growth rate was 318.5 percent.
But the growth is projected to slow down from next year due to the cyclical nature of the memory chip market, Gupta said. In 2026, the HBM sales growth rate is expected to come in at 22 percent, followed by 8 percent in 2027 and 21.3 percent in 2028.
Semicon Korea 2025, a three-day annual semiconductor trade show, kicked off Wednesday at Coex in Seoul. This year's event was set to welcome a record-high 70,000 attendees, with 500 companies showcasing cutting-edge chip manufacturing technologies, according to the organizer.
Opening the event, Samsung Electronics Chief Technology Officer Song Jai-hyuk delivered the keynote speech highlighting the importance of semiconductors to the development of AI in order for the technology to "catch up" to the capabilities of the human brain.
'AI has made tremendous progress over the past 80 years, but it still has much to learn compared to the human brain, which has evolved for over 3.4 billion years,' Song said in his keynote speech.
'Semiconductors will be crucial for the survival of key technologies of the post-AI era, such as autonomous vehicles, high-speed computing, quantum computing, humanoid robots and biotechnology," the CTO said.
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