August 7, 2026 / SemiMedia / — The global semiconductor market is forecast to grow 98.3% in 2026 to approximately $1.7 trillion, according to the June 2026 update of The McClean Report.

The report expects the market to expand further in 2027, when worldwide semiconductor sales are projected to exceed $2.2 trillion.

The current growth cycle is being driven mainly by structural demand changes created by the construction of artificial-intelligence data centers.

GPUs, high-bandwidth memory, advanced DRAM, NAND flash, advanced foundry processes and advanced packaging have all become supply bottlenecks as AI infrastructure investment increases.

Memory is expected to provide the largest contribution to market growth. The report forecasts that the worldwide memory market will expand 298% in 2026 to $916.4 billion.

Memory unit shipments, however, are projected to increase by only 8%, while the average selling price is expected to rise 268%. The figures indicate that higher prices, rather than a sharp increase in shipment volumes, will drive most of the market’s growth.

HBM remains central to rising AI memory demand. AI accelerators require greater memory bandwidth to support large-model training and inference, leading to continued growth in HBM consumption.

Expanding HBM production is also placing pressure on capacity available for conventional DRAM. This is contributing to higher memory prices across servers, personal computers, smartphones and automotive electronics.

In the logic segment, the report forecasts that the MOS logic market will grow 32% in 2026 to $577.5 billion.

GPU market revenue is expected to increase by 31%, supported primarily by the expansion of AI data centers and growing demand for AI computing capacity.

The report said AI is shifting the semiconductor industry away from its traditional dependence on personal-computer and smartphone cycles and toward a new growth phase centered on AI infrastructure.

However, as semiconductor manufacturers continue to expand production, the industry may face a risk of excess supply during 2028 and 2029.