July 5, 2024 /SemiMedia/ -- According to the Japan Semiconductor Industry Association, the development of artificial intelligence will drive the growth of semiconductor demand, and sales of chip manufacturing equipment in Japan are expected to increase by 15% in the 2024 fiscal year ending March 2025. At the same time, the Japan Semiconductor Equipment Association raised its annual sales forecast from 4.03 trillion yen to 4.25 trillion yen (approximated $26 billion).

The association said that investment in logic foundries will increase, and it is expected that Japan's semiconductor equipment sales will increase by another 10% to 4.68 trillion yen in the fiscal year ending March 2026. In the following year, it will rise further to 5.15 trillion yen.

The growing demand for artificial intelligence chips and data center construction has driven investment in the semiconductor field. On July 4, Toshiki Kawai, president and chairman of semiconductor equipment manufacturer Tokyo Electron (TEL), said that the growth of global AI-related investment and the increase in sales in the Chinese market were the reasons why the company raised its future outlook.