On March 26, Bank of America’s report showed that the inventory days for the semiconductor industry increased to 116 days in the fourth quarter of 2024, up by 8 days from the previous quarter, but still within a controllable range. The inventory days for memory were 130 days, while the inventory days for the foundry segment dropped to 77 days. The inventory days for downstream OEMs, distributors, and EMS (Electronic Manufacturing Services) were 56. The average inventory days for the seven major semiconductor companies (including Intel and Texas Instruments) reached 157 days, 52 days higher than the five-year median. Texas Instruments had the largest deviation in inventory levels.
On March 26, according to TrendForce’s research, the production cuts by NAND Flash manufacturers that began in the fourth quarter of 2024 are gradually taking effect. Consumer electronics brands are ramping up production early, and PCs, smartphones, and data centers are starting to rebuild their inventories. It is expected that NAND Flash prices will stop falling and begin to rise in the second quarter of 2025, with increases in the prices of Wafer and Client SSD.
Client SSD: After three quarters of inventory reduction, prices are expected to rise by 3%-8% in the second quarter due to early production by OEMs, the end of support for Windows 10, and demand driven by new-generation CPUs.
Enterprise SSD: The DeepSeek technology reduces AI training costs. Demand from China is surging, while demand in North America is polarized. Orders are expected to increase slightly quarter-on-quarter in the second quarter, with contract prices remaining flat from the first quarter.
eMMC, UFS: Shipments of smart TVs, tablets, and Chromebooks are growing, and demand for mid- to low-end smartphones is stable. China’s market is boosted by national subsidy policies, leading to increased orders for eMMC. Contract prices for eMMC are expected to remain flat in the second quarter. UFS demand is supported by high-end smartphones and automotive storage, with reduced supply, and contract prices are also expected to remain flat.
NAND Flash Wafer: As the market replenishes inventory and module and OEM factories increase purchases, the production cuts by manufacturers will impact supply. Contract prices for NAND Flash Wafer are expected to rise by 10%-15% in the second quarter.
On March 24, Sumit Sadana, Chief Business Officer of Micron Technology, announced that the company’s entire supply of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) chips for 2025 has been fully booked. Micron expects its HBM revenue to exceed $1 billion in 2025, highlighting the surging demand for high-performance memory driven by AI. On March 20, Micron reported its financial results for the second quarter of the 2024 fiscal year, with revenue growing by 38% year-over-year to $8.05 billion, surpassing analysts’ expectations of $7.91 billion. The adjusted earnings per share (EPS) was $1.56, exceeding the market expectation of $1.43. This performance was attributed to the strong demand for high-performance memory solutions such as HBM and DDR5, as well as the comprehensive recovery of the data center industry.
On March 25, Tai Liu, Vice President of Qualcomm, stated that the company will strengthen its layout in three major areas this year: AI PC, IoT, and networking. In the AI PC market, Qualcomm has launched several chips, including the flagship 12-core Snapdragon X Elite, the 10-core Snapdragon X Plus, and the 8-core Snapdragon X Plus, covering different price segments. Qualcomm also plans to enhance its physical channel cooperation in Taiwan to promote the development of the AI PC market. Additionally, Qualcomm has introduced a new brand, “Dragonwing,” in the IoT field and showcased diversified AI IoT solutions with multiple partners at the 2025 AI EXPO Taiwan.
On March 24, market research firm IDC released a report stating that the global semiconductor market, which recovered in 2024, is expected to grow steadily in 2025. The main drivers are the continuous growth in AI demand and the gradual recovery of non-AI demand. IDC estimates that the broad Foundry 2.0 market (including wafer foundry, non-memory IDM, OSAT, and photomask manufacturing) will reach a scale of $298 billion in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 11%. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2024 to 2029 is expected to be 10%.
On March 27, the Nikkei reported that the competition in large AI models continues to heat up. OpenAI launched the GPT-4o system upgrade with an image generation model, Google released the so-called “world’s strongest” AI model Gemini 2.5, and DeepSeek also updated its V3 large language model to enhance reasoning capabilities. With the continuous evolution of AI models, the demand for AI servers keeps rising, and contract manufacturers such as Foxconn, Quanta, and Wiwynn are expected to see business opportunities.
