January 7, 2025. The semiconductor industry is expected to launch 18 new fab construction projects in 2025*, according to SEMI’s latest quarterly World Fab Forecast report. The new projects include three 200mm and fifteen 300mm facilities, most of which are expected to come online between 2026 and 2027.
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In 2025, America and Japan are the leading regions with four projects each. The regions of China and Europe and the Middle East are in third place with three planned construction projects each. Taiwan has two planned projects, while Korea and Southeast Asia each have one project for 2025.
“The semiconductor industry has reached a critical inflection point where investments are driving both cutting-edge and mainstream technologies to meet evolving global needs,” said Ajit Manocha, president and CEO of SEMI. “Generative AI and high-performance computing are driving advances in the leading-edge logic and memory segments, while mainstream nodes continue to support critical applications in automotive, IoT and power electronics. The construction of 18 new semiconductor fabs scheduled to begin in 2025 demonstrates the industry’s commitment to supporting innovation and significant economic growth.”
The fourth quarter 2024 edition of the World Fab Forecast report, which covers the period from 2023 to 2025, shows that the global semiconductor industry plans to bring 97 new high-volume fabs online. This includes 48 projects in 2024 and 32 projects scheduled to start in 2025, with wafer sizes ranging from 300 mm to 50 mm.
Semiconductor capacity is expected to continue to accelerate, with an annual growth rate of 6.6% forecast for 2025, totaling 33.6 million wafers per month (wpm)**. This expansion will primarily be driven by performing logic technologies in high-performance computing (HPC) applications and the increasing adoption of generative AI in edge devices.
The semiconductor industry is intensifying its efforts to build advanced computing capacity to meet the increasing computing demands of large-scale language models (LLMs). Chipmakers are aggressively expanding advanced node capacity (7nm and below), which is expected to grow at an industry-leading compound annual growth rate of 16%, increasing from more than 300,000 wpm to a total of 2.2 million wpm in 2025.
Due to China’s strategy of chip self-sufficiency and expected demand from the automotive and IoT sectors, mainstream nodes (8nm to 45nm) are forecast to increase in capacity by a further 6%, exceeding the 15 million wpm mark in 2025.
Mature technology nodes (50nm and above) are seeing more conservative expansion, reflecting the slow market recovery and low utilization rates. This segment is expected to grow by 5% and reach 14 million wpm in 2025.
Foundry suppliers are expected to remain leaders in semiconductor equipment purchases. The foundry segment is forecast to see a 10.9% year-over-year capacity increase, from 11.3 million wpm in 2024 to a record 12.6 million wpm in 2025.
The overall memory segment is showing measured capacity expansion, with moderate growth of 3.5% in 2024 and 2.9% in 2025. However, strong demand for generative AI is driving significant changes in the memory markets. High bandwidth memory (HBM) is seeing a notable increase, resulting in different capacity growth trends between the DRAM and NAND flash segments.
The DRAM segment is expected to continue to grow robustly, recording a year-on-year increase of around 7% to 4.5 million wpm by 2025. In contrast, installed capacity for 3D NAND is expected to grow by 5%, reaching 3.7 million wpm in the same period.
The latest update of the SEMI World Fab Forecast report, published in December 2024, lists more than 1,500 fabs and production lines worldwide, including 180 fabs and production lines with varying probabilities of coming online in 2025 or later.
For more information on SEMI reports on other semiconductor sectors, please visit SEMI Market Intelligence or contact us at mktstats@semi.org.
*Fab counts do not include research and development (R&E)
**200-mm equivalent
SEMI® is the global industry association connecting more than 3,000 member companies and 1.5 million professionals worldwide in the semiconductor and electronics design and manufacturing supply chain. We accelerate our members’ collaboration in finding solutions to the industry’s greatest challenges through advocacy, workforce development, sustainability, supply chain management and other programs. Our SEMICON® exhibitions and events, technology communities, standards and market intelligence help drive our members’ business growth and innovation in design, devices, equipment, materials, services and software, enabling smarter, faster and safer electronics.
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👉 www.semi.org
Graphic: Semi
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