Unprecedented AI infrastructure demand and soaring memory prices propel global sales to a record $425bn in the second quarter.
The global semiconductor revenue rose by 31.4 percent to reach a record $425 billion in the second quarter of 2026, according to a new research by Omdia. The 31.4% quarter-on-quarter sequential growth surpassed the previous record of 29.2 per cent in Q1 2026.
AI demand and memory chip prices are primary factors of growth, with total semiconductor revenue in the first half of 2026 to $752 billion. The last four quarters starting from Q3 2025 have marked double digit sequential growth Q-o-Q, with Q3 2026, expected to follow a similar trend.
Memory Shortages and ASPs Drive Unprecedented Growth
The memory market led by dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and NAND chips remain the primary driver of growth with other components growing above usual rates contributing to a robust market.
Surge in demand from the artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure sector has led to reorganisation of priorities amongst the memory chip producers, leading to a surge in average selling prices (ASPs) of these chips. Memory ICs alone account for more than half of total semiconductor revenue.
AI Ecosystem Expansion Lifts Non-Memory Chips
Apart from memory chips, the revenue of non-memory semiconductor components also grew by 10 percent Q-o-Q. Based on Omdia data, the average second quarter revenue growth of non-memory chip components from 2002 to 2025 has just been 3 per cent.
AI infrastructure has also proven to be helpful with the growth in revenue of other components like Microprocessors (MPU), which grew by 16 per cent, against a seasonal growth of 1 per cent.
Full-Year Projections Set to Dwarf Previous Annual Records
As semiconductor revenue leads above the $750 billion mark in the first half of 2026, it has already surpassed a full year revenue figure of every year other than 2025.
As strong market conditions are expected to continue, Omdia forecasts that semiconductor revenue will surpass $500 billion in Q3 2026.This might take the total revenue in the first three quarters of 2026 to 1.25 trillion, which would be 1.5x of the total revenue of 2025.
