Global Semiconductor Equipment Billings Hit Record $135.1B in 2025, Taiwan Up 90% on AI-Driven TSMC Buildout

By NineScrolls Team · 2026-04-07 · 6 min read · Industry

Full-Year 2025 Overview: $135.1 Billion and Up 15%

SEMI published its full-year 2025 semiconductor equipment billings report on April 7, 2026, confirming that the global market reached a record $135.1 billion — up 15% from $117.1 billion in 2024. The result marks the industry's highest annual equipment spend on record and reflects an acceleration in capital intensity driven by artificial intelligence, advanced logic scaling, and the proliferation of high-bandwidth memory architectures.

SEMI President and CEO Ajit Manocha stated: "Record semiconductor equipment billings of $135 billion in 2025 underscore the scale and urgency of the industry's buildout as AI accelerates demand for leading-edge logic, advanced memory and high-bandwidth architectures."

Asia tightened its grip on global equipment spending, with China, Taiwan, and South Korea together accounting for 79% of the global market in 2025, up from 74% in 2024. The concentration reflects where capital-intensive leading-edge and mature-node production capacity is being built at scale.

Equipment Segments: Wafer Processing, Test, and Packaging

Within the $135.1 billion total, wafer processing equipment — the segment that includes etch, deposition, lithography, CMP, and diffusion tools — grew 12% year-over-year. Front-end equipment in other categories grew 13%. These two front-end segments represent the bulk of the total and reflect sustained investment in node transitions at leading chipmakers across Taiwan, Korea, and Japan.

Test equipment was the fastest-growing category, surging 55% year-over-year. The driver is high-bandwidth memory: HBM2e, HBM3, and HBM3e stacks require extensive die-level and package-level testing given the performance and reliability requirements of AI accelerators. Advanced packaging equipment rose 21%, consistent with the expanding role of chiplet integration and 2.5D/3D packaging in AI and HPC products.

The data confirms that the current equipment cycle is not driven by a single segment but by simultaneous investment across the full process flow — from deposition and etch at the front end through to assembly and test at the back end.

Regional Breakdown: Taiwan Surges, China Holds, West Retreats

The 2025 regional picture is defined by three dynamics: a historic surge in Taiwan driven by TSMC's leading-edge ramp, stable China spending despite export controls, and a sharp decline in Europe and North America.

Full-year 2025 spending by region:

Taiwan Up 90%: What Is Driving the Record Surge

Taiwan's 90% jump to $31.5 billion is the most striking single data point in the SEMI report. The driver is TSMC's simultaneous ramp of 2nm production at Fab 20 (Baoshan) and Fab 22 (Kaohsiung), combined with a massive expansion of CoWoS advanced packaging capacity to meet AI chip demand from Apple, Nvidia, AMD, and Broadcom. Each new process node requires a full refresh of etch, deposition, lithography, and CMP toolsets, creating outsized equipment intensity relative to prior-generation production ramps.

The 2nm node specifically requires gate-all-around (GAA) transistor architecture, which demands atomic-layer deposition of high-k dielectrics and metal gates with sub-angstrom conformality, and atomic-layer etch for fin patterning with extreme uniformity across 300mm wafers. These process steps require significantly more tool cycles per wafer than prior FinFET nodes, amplifying equipment spending per unit of wafer capacity.

The CoWoS expansion adds a second equipment intensity layer: redistribution layer deposition, through-silicon via etch and fill, and wafer bonding tools all scale directly with CoWoS output. TSMC's CoWoS capacity is understood to have more than doubled in 2025 to meet AI accelerator demand, and 2026 capacity targets call for continued aggressive expansion.

China at $49.3B and Korea at $25.8B: Memory and Mature Nodes

China remained the single largest equipment market at $49.3 billion despite a -0.5% dip from 2024's record. Domestic chipmakers — SMIC, Hua Hong Semiconductor, CXMT, and YMTC — continued aggressive investment in mature node logic (28nm–180nm), DRAM, and NAND capacity. The near-flat result despite escalating U.S. export controls on advanced etch and deposition tools reflects China's pivot toward domestic equipment suppliers and continued strong demand for mature-node capacity that remains within export license thresholds.

South Korea's $25.8 billion, up 26%, tracks closely with Samsung and SK Hynix's HBM investment cycle. Both companies have committed to building out HBM3 and HBM3e production at scale through 2026 to supply Nvidia, AMD, and the hyperscalers. HBM stacks require TSV etch, barrier layer deposition, and tungsten fill at each memory die, creating sustained demand for high-throughput etch and CVD tools at Samsung's Pyeongtaek complex and SK Hynix's Icheon and Cheongju fabs.

What This Means for Plasma Processing and Thin Film Deposition

Plasma etch and PECVD at the center of the 12% wafer processing gain. The wafer processing segment's 12% growth is where plasma etch and PECVD tools operate. At the 2nm node, etch step counts increase compared to prior nodes due to multi-patterning requirements and the additional structural complexity of nanosheet GAA transistors. Taiwan's 90% equipment surge means that plasma etch and PECVD capacity additions in TSMC's Baoshan and Kaohsiung fabs represent a major portion of the global equipment uptick. Suppliers of ICP etch systems, PECVD reactors, and plasma activation tools are the direct beneficiaries of that $31.5 billion Taiwan spend.

ALD intensity rises with GAA adoption. Gate-all-around architecture requires conformal ALD of high-k gate dielectrics (hafnium oxide), work function metals, and low-resistance contact metals at dimensions that exceed the conformality limits of CVD. The 2nm ramp in Taiwan and the 2nm ramp-up in Korea together represent the first high-volume adoption of GAA at scale, translating directly into a step-change in ALD tool utilization per fab. The 12% wafer processing growth figure likely understates ALD's unit growth because ALD tools run more process steps per wafer at advanced nodes.

PVD and sputtering targets scale with memory investment. Korea's $25.8 billion spend, driven by HBM, drives strong demand for PVD tools used to deposit barrier layers (TaN, TiN), seed layers for copper interconnects, and tungsten targets for TSV fill. Each HBM die requires TSV etching and metal fill, and the sheer volume of HBM3/HBM3e production at Samsung and SK Hynix in 2025-2026 represents a sustained multi-year load on PVD systems and their consumables: targets, shields, and liners.

Equipment supply chain: gas delivery, vacuum components, and process monitoring all scale. A $135.1 billion equipment market pulls through proportional demand for the subcomponents and consumables that enable plasma and deposition processes: mass flow controllers for process gas delivery, turbomolecular and cryo pumps for vacuum maintenance, RF generators and matching networks for plasma sources, electrostatic chucks for wafer temperature control, and quartz and ceramic process kit components. With Taiwan alone spending $31.5 billion on equipment in 2025, the supply chain serving those tools experienced a corresponding surge in replacement part and consumable demand throughout the year.

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