01. SEMI: China's Semiconductor Market to Surpass $1 Trillion by 2030
According to Lu Hao'an, Global Vice President of SEMI, the semiconductor market is expected to grow by nearly 20% in 2024, reaching $628 billion, and is projected to surpass $1 trillion by 2030. The demand for AI applications will drive market growth, with servers, data centers, and storage devices emerging as the fastest-growing segments. Global investment in semiconductor equipment is increasing, and China's share is expected to reach 31%.
02. Global Memory Chip Demand Warms Up, South Korean Firms Hope for Q2 Rebound
According to reports on April 1, in the first quarter of 2025, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix of South Korea saw their performance fall short of expectations due to weak memory chip prices. Samsung's operating profit is estimated at 4.7 trillion won, down 27.8% year-on-year. SK Hynix's operating profit is expected to be 6.5 trillion won, a decrease of over 1 trillion won compared to the fourth quarter of 2024.
The market is cautiously optimistic about the second quarter, as memory chip demand shows signs of recovery. Micron and other industry leaders have raised product prices, and the growing demand for AI and data centers is expected to drive market recovery. In China, market demand is increasing, inventory adjustments for mobile DRAM are nearing completion, and NAND flash prices are expected to rise starting in April. DRAM prices are stabilizing and are likely to enter an upward trend after the second quarter.
03. ST and Innoscience Collaborate on GaN Technology Development and Manufacturing
On April 1, STMicroelectronics (ST) and Innoscience announced the signing of a development and manufacturing agreement for gallium nitride (GaN) technology. The collaboration aims to enhance the competitiveness and supply chain resilience of GaN power devices. Under the agreement, both companies will jointly advance GaN power technology and promote its applications in consumer electronics, data centers, automotive, and industrial power systems. Innoscience will utilize ST’s front-end manufacturing capacity in Europe to produce GaN wafers, while ST will leverage Innoscience’s manufacturing facilities in China to optimize the supply chain and expand market coverage.
04. Yageo to Raise Tantalum Capacitor Prices from June
On April 2, it was reported that Yageo Group will raise the prices of tantalum capacitors starting from June 1, with double-digit percentage increases. The price hike is due to rising costs and affects tantalum capacitors ranging from 2.5V to 10V and from 47uF to 330uF. Yageo is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of tantalum capacitors, and the surge in demand for its products in AI servers has driven prices up. Currently, the top three global tantalum capacitor manufacturers have not expanded production, leading to shortages of some models and a supply-demand gap of over 10%.
05. Arm-designed CPUs Expected to Capture 50% of Data Center Market by Year-End
According to a report from Reuters on March 31, UK-based semiconductor design company Arm expects its global market share of data center CPUs to grow from around 15% in 2024 to 50% by the end of 2025. Mohamed Awad, Arm’s head of infrastructure, noted that Arm-designed CPUs are often used as the “host” chips in AI systems to manage traffic for other AI chips. With the increasing energy consumption of AI data centers, Arm’s low-power semiconductors are becoming more popular among cloud service providers.
06. ASUS Secures Orders for AI Servers
On April 3, ASUS Group actively expanded its AI server business. Senior Vice President Xu Youjia said that ASUS is very optimistic about the AI market, although it may still take time for AI to become fully widespread. ASUS’s NVIDIA GB300 servers have already received customer orders, with small-batch shipments expected in the fourth quarter, and demand from the US, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East. ASUS plans to ramp up shipments of the GB200 servers in the second and third quarters, with the GB300 taking over for shipments by year-end. ASUS expects its server business to achieve double-digit growth in 2025.