The semiconductor industry is making a lot of money. Market revenue in 2026Q1 exceeded US$300 billion.

[ Gearbest Technology News]The latest report from market research organization Omdia shows that the global semiconductor market continued its previous high growth trend in the first quarter of 2026, with single-quarter revenue reaching US$319 billion, an increase of 27% from the fourth quarter of 2025, setting a record for the highest quarter-on-quarter growth since Omdia began quarterly statistics in 2002.

memory chip

The report pointed out that the biggest driving force for this round of growth comes from the memory market. Affected by the continued strong demand for artificial intelligence, the prices of DRAM and NAND flash memory have increased significantly, driving the rapid growth of memory business revenue. In the first quarter of 2026, memory market revenue increased by more than 80% quarter-on-quarter, accounting for more than 40% of the overall semiconductor market revenue, which is significantly higher than the long-term average level of about 20%.

Among them, NAND flash memory performs particularly well. Affected by rising market prices and continued tension between supply and demand, the NAND market's single-quarter revenue was close to US$48 billion, a 96% increase from the previous quarter. At the same time, the average selling price of NAND increased by 95% month-on-month. Omdia believes that the strong performance of the NAND market is expected to continue into the second quarter under the background that demand for artificial intelligence and data centers continues to grow, and supply recovery is still affected by factors such as technology upgrades, yield improvements, and product structure adjustments.

In contrast, non-memory semiconductor market growth has been relatively modest. Data show that after excluding memory products, the semiconductor market revenue in the first quarter of 2026 will only increase by slightly more than 2% month-on-month. Microcontrollers, discrete devices, optoelectronics and other fields still show certain seasonal decline characteristics. However, strong demand for chips related to artificial intelligence and data centers has offset the downward pressure on some traditional markets to a certain extent.

Regarding subsequent trends, Omdia predicts that the global semiconductor market will still maintain a high growth rate in the second quarter of 2026. Although the growth rate may be lower than that in the first quarter, the overall quarter-on-quarter growth rate is still expected to exceed 20%.

Omdia data

Clifford Leimbach, head of Omdia's CLT business, said that the global semiconductor market has achieved double-digit growth for four consecutive quarters, showing that market demand is still strong. According to the current development trend, the total revenue of the global semiconductor industry in the first half of 2026 is expected to exceed US$700 billion.