The wave of AI and artificial intelligence has propelled the global semiconductor industry out of the "haze" and ushered in significant growth, as evidenced by recent industry data disclosures. However, looking at the global development pattern of the semiconductor industry, the pace of development varies in different regions. The wave of semiconductor expansion in Europe and America is facing resistance, while the Southeast Asian market continues to rise. The global semiconductor market is mixed, with opportunities and challenges coexisting, and there are still plenty of highlights.

AI driven, semiconductor market enters growth cycle

Recently, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) released data showing that the global semiconductor industry's cumulative sales in the second quarter of this year reached $149.9 billion, a year-on-year increase of 18.3% and a month on month increase of 6.5%. Among them, the monthly sales in June this year reached 50 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 22.9% and a month on month increase of 1.7%. The industry points out that this is the highest global semiconductor growth rate since April 2022. The booming development of generative AI has driven an overall increase in demand for the semiconductor industry.

The two major industries of memory and wafer foundry, driven by AI, are showing a positive development trend.

In the field of memory, the application of AI generative large models brings benefits to both DRAM and NAND Flash: AI applications require the use of high-performance GPUs, and the demand for HBM related to it is skyrocketing. The latest survey by TrendForce, a global market research firm, shows that with the iteration of AI chips, the HBM (high bandwidth memory) capacity carried by a single chip has also significantly increased. Driven by the growth of AI chips and single-chip capacity, there has been a significant increase in the overall consumption of HBM in the industry. It is estimated that the annual growth rate will exceed 200% in 2024, and HBM consumption will double again by 2025.

AI also requires flash memory products with higher storage capacity, and the attention to enterprise grade solid-state drives continues to increase. Jibang Consulting stated that due to the significant increase in demand for AI, AI server related customers have further requested suppliers to add Enterprise SSDs (Enterprise Solid State Drives) in the past two quarters. It is expected that the procurement capacity of AI related SSDs will exceed 45EB this year, and in the next few years, AI servers are expected to drive an average annual growth rate of SSD demand exceeding 60%. In order to meet the supply of SSD in AI applications and accelerate process upgrades, upstream suppliers have begun planning to launch 2YY products, which are expected to be mass-produced by 2025.

In terms of wafer foundry, due to the increasing popularity of AI big model applications, the demand for AI chips is soaring, and advanced processes have become a "hot commodity", ushering in a wave of price increases and production expansion. At the beginning of this year, TSMC informed customers that the price of 5/3nm process products would increase in 2024. In late July, TSMC issued notices to multiple customers that the prices of 5/3nm process products would increase again from January 2025. Depending on different investment plans, products, and cooperation relationships, the increase would be around 3-8%.

The booming development of advanced processes has attracted wafer fabs to accelerate the layout of 2nm, 1nm and other updated products. At the beginning of this year, TSMC informed customers that 5/3nm process products will increase in price in 2024. TSMC, Samsung Standard