Driven by AI Boom, $1.5 Trillion Chip Industry Becomes US-China Battleground
Global demand for chips has reached such heights that supply can no longer keep pace. Amidst the explosion of investment in artificial intelligence (AI), the global semiconductor market is projected to break records, reaching $1.51 trillion (approximately Rp24,000 trillion) by 2026.
“Chip demand continues to exceed supply,” stated ASML, the world’s largest semiconductor equipment manufacturer and a primary supplier to global chip fabrication plants, on Tuesday (2/6/2026).
The industry organisation World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) estimates that the global semiconductor market will surge by 89.9 per cent in 202 ม6 compared to the previous year. This figure is significantly higher than the projections released last December, when the market was only expected to reach $975 billion. The current projection represents an increase of more than half a trillion dollars.
The driver behind this drastic shift in global technology industry forecasts is a single sector attracting extraordinary levels of investment: AI. Technology companies are continuously building new data centres, installing thousands of servers, and expanding computing capacity to train and run generative AI models. This expansion is occurring much faster than previously anticipated.
The impact is immediately visible in the demand for memory chips. WSTS predicts the memory chip market will jump approximately 3.5 times to $803.94 billion by 2026, a value that exceeds the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of several developed nations.
These projections are more than just theoretical figures. ASML reported that its first-quarter 2026 net sales reached 8.8 billion euros (approximately $10.4 billion), a 13 per cent increase compared to the same period last year. The company’s net profit also surpassed 2.7 billion euros, a 17 per cent year-on-year surge. More importantly, ASML’s customers are sending very clear signals. “Our customers are accelerating their capacity expansion plans for 2026 and beyond,” said ASML President and CEO Christophe Fouquet.