“The Korean semiconductor industry will continue to grow thanks to increased investment in artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC).”

Clark Tseng, CEO of SEMI, predicted at a press conference held at SEMICON Korea 2025 on February 19 that Korea’s semiconductor industry will continue to grow driven by demand for AI and HPC.

Director Clark Cheung first analyzed the global electronics sales trends in 2024, noting that although there was good growth due to peak season sales in the first quarter of 2024, the annual growth rate was only 2%.

This result fell short of the 5-6% growth predicted in the mid-term.

On the other hand, sales of electronic devices showed a positive signal, predicting an annual growth of 5% in 2025.

Semiconductor sales have grown much stronger than electronics sales over the past two years.

This is due to improved memory prices and increased demand for AI chips, and an annual growth rate of more than 20% is expected in the first quarter of 2025.

This trend is expected to lead to double-digit IC sales this year. It was expected that the growth rate would be recorded.

Clark Chung, the executive director, explained that semiconductor inventory levels have been higher than expected since the second half of 2024, which has had some impact on consumer demand and sluggish demand in the automotive and industrial sectors.

Manufacturers' operating rates also remained low, and a quick recovery was expected to be difficult until inventory levels were brought down to healthy levels.

South Korea's semiconductor exports also showed strong growth.

It has recorded growth for seven consecutive quarters since the first quarter of 2023, and its annual growth rate exceeded 50% in the first half of last year.

On the other hand, exports are expected to decline slightly in the first quarter due to memory prices and seasonal factors, but are expected to recover from the second half.

AI investment is also an important keyword.

As cloud service providers (CSPs) increase their spending on AI, its impact on the semiconductor equipment market is growing.

Leading CSPs’ spending on AI has surged from $80 billion in 2018 to $200 billion last year, and is expected to reach $250 billion this year.

Investments in AI and high-performance computing (HPC) are expected to account for half of the semiconductor equipment market by 2028.

Investments by Korean semiconductor manufacturers are also noteworthy.

Annual investment in semiconductor fabs is expected to reach approximately $30 billion in 2024 and 2025, with strong growth expected from 2026.

The proportion of DRAM investment will decrease somewhat, but NAND flash investment and logic and foundry investment will show strong growth.

Finally, Director Clark Chung mentioned the production capacity outlook for Korean semiconductor manufacturers, noting that production capacity for DRAM and NAND flash is also expected to grow strongly. I expected it to be visible.