With global demand soaring and AI chip revenues on track to hit $100 billion by 2026, the sector continues its rapid ascent, even as major players struggle to keep pace amid staggering market losses.
The artificial intelligence (AI) chip market is on track to hit a near-$100 billion milestone by early 2026, after posting another year of explosive growth despite a turbulent start to 2025.
According to a prediction from Stocklytics and Gartner, global AI chip revenue is expected to reach $91.96 billion this year, following two consecutive years of over 30% annual growth.
In 2023, AI chip sales stood at $53.66 billion, surging to $71.25 billion in 2024, and now climbing by nearly $21 billion year-on-year (YoY) in 2025. This growth comes amid soaring demand for generative AI models, increasing cloud adoption, and a global boom in AI startups.
“The AI chip market has grown tremendously over the past few years, and this trend shows no signs of slowing down in 2025,” the Stocklytics report said.
Moreover, massive improvements in machine learning, rapid growth in cloud use, and the AI startup boom have pushed tech giants like NVIDIA, AMD, and Google to raise the bar in chip performance.
Yet this rapid expansion has not come without challenges. High demand, supply limitations, and export restrictions have led to chip shortages and rising prices. Despite this, analysts remain bullish. With annual gains averaging around $20 billion, the sector is projected to eclipse the $100 billion mark by mid-2026.
Compared to other AI sectors, the report highlighted that the chip market’s scale is staggering. At $100 billion, AI chips will be 40% smaller than the machine learning market, but three times larger than AI robotics and computer vision, and nearly 30% bigger than the NLP market.
However, not all players are celebrating. While the market booms, top producers are facing steep declines in valuation. Since January, the five AI chip firms — NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, Google, and Amazon — have lost a combined $1.1 trillion in market value.
Both NVIDIA and Google shed over $400 billion each, while Amazon and AMD saw market caps fall by $270 billion and $30 billion, respectively.
In contrast, Intel has staged a surprise rebound. After a difficult 2024, Intel has added $7.2 billion to its market cap this year — the only major chipmaker to register gains.
As AI chips continue to power the future, for industry giants, it seems like a race marked by both record-breaking growth and relentless pressure.
