Global silicon wafer shipments grew 13% YoY in 1Q26
Worldwide silicon wafer shipments increased 13.1% year-on-year to 3,275 million square inches (MSI) from the 2,896 MSI recorded during the same quarter of 2025, reports SEMI.
Sequentially, shipments declined 4.7% quarter-over-quarter from the 3,437 MSI recorded during the fourth quarter of 2025, in line with typical seasonality.
"Silicon wafer demand related to AI data centres continues to be strong, including advanced logic and memory, and also now extending to power management devices," said Ginji Yada, Chairman of SEMI SMG and Managing Executive Officer, General Manager, Sales and Marketing Division at SUMCO Corporation, in a press release.
Yada continues to say that overall, silicon wafer demand has improved, but the recovery is not uniform. Many device companies have noted improvements in the industrial semiconductor segment, and this is creating a broader-based recovery as wafer inventory is absorbed.
"Weaker smartphone and PC shipments in the first quarter of this year may show the impact of tighter supply of memory due to AI high bandwidth memory (HBM) allocation decisions."
