Global Chip Sales Hit $298.5 Billion in Q1 2026, Up 25% Quarter on Quarter

A Record-Breaking Quarter

The global semiconductor industry has posted an extraordinary $298.5 billion in first-quarter 2026 sales, a 25% increase from the fourth quarter of 2025, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association. March sales alone reached $99.5 billion, surging 79.2% year-on-year from $55.5 billion in March 2025 and climbing 11.5% from February.

The quarterly figures mark a continuation of remarkable momentum for chipmakers, who recorded a record $791.7 billion in global sales during 2025. With the first quarter of 2026 averaging nearly $100 billion per month, the industry remains firmly on track to approach $1 trillion in annual revenue this year, a target both the SIA and the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics organisation have projected.

AI Infrastructure Fuels the Boom

The growth is overwhelmingly concentrated in AI-related demand. Logic chips, produced by companies such as Nvidia, AMD, and Intel, were the top-selling semiconductor category in 2025 at $301.9 billion, up 39.9% year-over-year, whilst memory products rose 34.8% to $223.1 billion. Both categories are projected to lead again in 2026 with gains exceeding 30%.

Separately, SEMI's Silicon Manufacturers Group reported that worldwide silicon wafer shipments rose 13.1% year-on-year in Q1 2026 to 3,275 million square inches, up from 2,896 million square inches a year earlier. Demand related to AI data centres continues to be strong, including advanced logic and memory, and is now extending to power management devices.

Uneven Recovery Beyond AI

While the headline figures are striking, the recovery remains uneven. Wafer shipments declined 4.7% sequentially from Q4 2025, reflecting typical seasonality, and weaker smartphone and PC shipments persist due to memory supply constraints linked to AI high-bandwidth memory allocation. Gartner projects memory prices will rise 125% in 2026 as consumer electronics companies compete with data centres for limited supply.

Regionally, Asia Pacific and China have driven the bulk of growth, with February year-on-year sales in Asia Pacific up 93.5% and the Americas up 59.2%. Japan has been the outlier, recording year-on-year declines in early 2026.

What Comes Next

The industry's trajectory now hinges on whether AI infrastructure spending can sustain its pace, and whether non-AI segments will eventually recover or continue to be crowded out by data centre priorities. With Omdia recently doubling its 2026 chip growth forecast to 62.7%, the appetite for AI-grade silicon shows no signs of slowing.