Global sales of total semiconductor manufacturing equipment by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are forecast to reach a record high of $165.9 billion in 2026, increasing 23.2% year-on-year, SEMI announced today in its Mid-Year Total Semiconductor Equipment Forecast – OEM Perspective. Growth momentum is expected to continue through 2028, with total equipment sales forecast to reach a record $229.5 billion, marking five consecutive years of growth as AI-driven demand reshapes semiconductor manufacturing investment.
The stronger outlook reflects accelerating investment in AI infrastructure, leading-edge logic, advanced memory, and back-end technologies needed to support higher compute density, high bandwidth memory (HBM)-related investment, and increasingly complex device architectures.
“AI is accelerating demand for more powerful and efficient chips, driving increased investment across the semiconductor capital equipment market,” said Ajit Manocha, SEMI president and CEO. “The mid-year forecast points to a higher equipment spending trajectory as chipmakers invest in the leading-edge logic, advanced memory, test and packaging capabilities required for the AI era.”
Semiconductor Equipment Sales by Segment
After registering a record $116.9 billion in sales last year, the Wafer Fab Equipment (WFE) segment, which includes wafer processing, mask/reticle, and fab facilities equipment, is projected to increase 23.1% to $143.9 billion in 2026. This represents a significant upward revision from SEMI’s 2025 year-end forecast and reflects stronger investment in advanced memory, especially HBM-related DRAM technologies, and leading-edge logic applications. WFE segment sales are projected to expand 21.8% in 2027 and 14.1% in 2028 to reach the $200 billion mark, as manufacturers accelerate capacity expansion and technology migration for AI-related workloads.
AI-related semiconductor demand is also driving expansion in back-end equipment. After surging 55.3% in 2025, semiconductor test equipment sales are projected to increase 31.0% to $15.3 billion in 2026, marking a strong upward revision from SEMI’s 2025 year-end forecast. Assembly and packaging equipment sales, which increased 20.8% in 2025, are projected to rise 9.6% to $6.7 billion in 2026, broadly in line with the prior forecast. Growth is expected to continue through 2028, with test equipment reaching $20.8 billion and assembly and packaging equipment reaching $8.6 billion, supported by increasing device complexity, advanced and heterogeneous packaging adoption, and more rigorous performance and reliability requirements for AI and HBM devices.
