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The 2025 SEMICON West Market Symposium brought together leading analysts and strategists to decode the powerful forces shaping the global semiconductor market. Building on last year’s focus on fabless growth and workforce initiatives, this year’s sessions centered on the rising influence of geopolitics, trade policy, and AI-driven investment. Experts from SEMI, Integrated Insights, Boston Consulting Group, Kearney, PwC, WSTS and TechSearch shared perspectives on how global shifts from tariffs to technology races are redefining supply chain resilience and regional competitiveness.On October 6 in Phoenix, Arizona, Clark Tseng, Senior Director of SEMI Market Intelligence, hosted the symposium and presented along with industry experts on the current trade environment from various angles. Discussions ranged from the effects of U.S. tariffs across the globe, to sector-specific considerations and market growth areas. US Trade Dynamics in Semiconductors As the geopolitical landscape in the U.S. becomes more complex, Iacob Koch-Weser, Associate Director, Global Trade Investment at Boston Consulting Group outlined the impact that tariffs are having on the U.S. industry. The average American tariff, he said, is higher than any time in the last 75 years. Although the semiconductor industry is less affected by high tariffs than other sectors, Koch-Weser noted that might change with the administration’s expanded Section 232 Tariff that imposes 50% tariffs on steel, aluminum, and their derivatives on nearly all trading partners. To explain, he described four potential Section 232 tariff scenarios, underscoring limited Section 232 enforcement as the ideal approach.Tariffs may be deprioritized in favor of chips incentivesThere may be targeted carveouts for alliesThe administration may impose high tariffs with limited exceptionsThere may be a 100% tariff rate To cope with tariff uncertainty, Koch-Weser recommended that companies consider reshaping policies, mastering trade compliance, and reconfiguring supply chains if possible. He also shared four potential outcomes for the future of U.S. trade that could take effect within the next 18-24 months. The U.S. may run its own system while the rest of the world aligns to World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.North American countries may form a stronghold, leaving all other countries to choose between the North American alliance and WTO standards.Countries may form new blocs and preferential agreements, creating multiple economic spheres worldwide.Global cooperation could break down, forcing countries to fend for themselves.With everything considered, he reinforced that the U.S. is still an attractive place for semiconductor investment. The current administration, he said, recognizes the importance of bringing advanced technologies back to the U.S. Navigating Uncertainty: AI-Driven Growth and the U.S. Semiconductor Manufacturing RenaissanceContinuing discussions on tariffs, SEMI’s Clark Tseng painted a picture of the current U.S. semiconductor industry. He divided his presentation into four key areas: near-term economic uncertainty, AI changes everything, semiconductor market equipment forecast, and material market outlook.Near-term economic uncertainty: U.S. tariff policies are contributing to inflationary pressures and altering global trade patterns, leading to cross-border uncertainty that is slowing investment. U.S. tariff revenue, he said, has expanded from $7 billion in January 2025 to $29.5 billion by August, forcing companies to sacrifice margins to compensate. AI changes everything: By 2030, Tseng noted that nearly half of the semiconductor industry’s capital expenditure will be driven by AI, pointing to sustained growth in AI-driven cloud infrastructure spending through 2028 forecasts. AI is also moving beyond data centers into edge computing and endpoint devices.Semiconductor market equipment forecast: Tseng reported that the outlook for the equipment market remains strong over the next three years. However, the biggest risk to the market is a potential slowdown in AI investment and adoption. Additionally, U.S. export controls and changes in regional supply chains present some challenges. Last year, China was the largest market for semiconductor equipment, but Tseng expects continued normalization amid broader market adjustments. Taiwan and South Korea experienced the strongest year-over-year growth, driven by demand for AI chips and high-bandwidth memory (HBM). Material market outlook: Silicon wafer shipments grew strongly in Q2 of 2025, but Tseng flagged this as unexpected and cited tariffs as a possible explanation. He noted the 300mm wafer segment is expected to grow 7% in 2025, while 200mm is projected to decline. The total wafer material market, he said, is also expected to grow by 6% this year. Additionally, wet chemicals experienced a 16% expansion in 2025, while silicon wafers, photolithography materials, and CMP materials are in recovery. Semiconductor Market – Status Outlook Tobias Pröttel (or Proettel), CEO of World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS), reported that the industry’s rebound remains firmly on track, with the latest WSTS statistics confirming a 19% year-over-year increase in global semiconductor sales during the first half of 2025. Total revenue reached $346 billion over the period, supported by strong demand for AI-driven infrastructure and next-generation data centers. Based on this solid first-half performance, WSTS has raised its full-year 2025 forecast to $728 billion, representing 15% annual growth, and now expects the market to reach around $800 billion in 2026, keeping the industry on course toward the $1 trillion milestone before the decade’s end.Logic and Memory continue to lead the expansion, driven by GPUs, AI accelerators, and high-bandwidth memory (HBM), while other product categories are showing steady recovery after the recent downturn. Pröttel noted that this growth is not confined to a single region: the Americas, China, and Asia Pacific are all posting double-digit gains, reflecting strong global momentum across the semiconductor value chain.Strategic Approaches to Semiconductors by Major Economies Following Pröttel, Kearney’s Vice President, PERLab, Sanjay Kumar outlined the semiconductor investment climates in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and India. South Korea is currently focused on maintaining its lead in memory, diversifying into logic, localizing its supply chain, developing advanced packaging capabilities, and investing in startups. Kumar also noted the Korean approach of offering loans, as opposed to the U.S. strategy of providing direct grants. In addition, Kumar said the Korean government plays an active role in how it wants its companies to grow, whereas the U.S. takes a more passive approach in this regard.Japan is also honing its leadership in key areas like materials and memory, and Kumar also pointed to the country’s efforts to build additional advanced packaging capacity. Japan, he said, aims to grow its industry though a mix of grants, loans, and tax credits. Among the country’s notable subsidies include a 50% subsidy for TSMC – its largest so far – as well as a $4 billion subsidy for Rapidus. Taiwan’s semiconductor industry is critical for protecting its national security. As a region with limited land, power, and water, Kumar noted that Taiwan is currently focused on developing its talent base. Its government is offering tax credits for R D and equipment and up to a 50% cost share for R D projects. India, he said, has one of the most ambitious incentive programs in the world. Through its India Semiconductor Mission (ISM), the country offers a 50% federal subsidy, in addition to a 20-30% state subsidy in its quest to cover the entire semiconductor ecosystem. Kumar also spotlighted some of India’s successes – like the joint venture between Renesas, CG Power and Industrial Solutions, and Stars Microelectronics – to build a new OSAT facility.Adapting to New Policy and Navigating the U.S. Semiconductor Landscape – Insights from Taiwan Taiwan is a critical trade partner of the U.S., ranking fourth in total trade volume as of July 2025. With Taiwan’s stronghold on the U.S. chip ecosystem, Paul Poliakov, Senior Manager, International Tax Services, CPA at PwC Taiwan detailed both the bottlenecks and developments regarding Taiwan companies’ investments in the U.S. Among the investment bottlenecks he highlighted were higher costs of building facilities in the U.S., multiple layers of compliance requirements that may be intimidating for new market entrants, and complex visa and tax regulations. In addition, Section 232 investigations on semiconductors are ongoing, with several potential policy changes that could take effect. The pending United States-Taiwan Expedited Double-Tax Relief Act could help ease burdens, he said, but it has yet to pass in the U.S. Senate as of October 2025. If it passes, it will integrate benefits for Taiwanese individuals and businesses into the U.S. tax code, which could substantially benefit Taiwanese investment in the U.S., including manufacturing, services, distribution, and a wide variety of other industries. Furthermore, Poliakov suggested that businesses maintain flexibility in their investment strategies, engage with U.S. state and local governments that can offer investment incentives, and work with professionals to ensure regulatory compliance. Geopolitical Shifts in Advanced Packaging AssemblyIn the final presentation of the 2025 Market Symposium, Jan Vardaman, Founder and President of TechSearch International provided an overview of the current advanced packaging market. Although advanced packaging represents the highest growth area in the industry, Vardaman highlighted that packaging complexity is also soaring. R D, testing, and equipment support infrastructure, she said, are becoming more critical for meeting future packaging needs. Even though assembly is mostly done in Asia, new U.S.-based advanced packaging facilities from Amkor, TSMC, and others represent signs of change. Still, Vardaman noted that the U.S. has almost no capability to produce advanced IC substrates using build-up film, which are needed to support high density applications. In addition, she highlighted that building more silicon fabs on U.S. soil won’t solve its national security or supply chain concerns.For the U.S. to create a sustainable packaging ecosystem, Vardaman concluded that support of assembly facilities is crucial. Ultimately, businesses must be willing to pay more for U.S.-based packaging in favor of potential supply chain resilience and national security benefits. SEMI would like to thank all speakers, sponsors, and attendees for the success of this year’s Market Symposium. Explore the latest SEMI Market Intelligence reports, covering historical reporting, actionable foresight into emerging trends and technology investments to make confident, forward-looking decisions across the semiconductor and microelectronics value chain.Clark Tseng is Senior Director, Market Intelligence Team at SEMI. Nishita Rao is Director, Product Marketing at SEMI.

Materials science – a field that includes elements of applied physics, chemistry, and mulit-disciplinary engineering applied to magnetics, metallurgy, ceramics, polymers and silicon – serves as the foundation for technologies that have driven much of the tech sector’s economic growth for the past 50 years. As our devices grow smaller, faster and smarter – while also requiring higher performance and greater energy efficiency – we’re reaching the limits of what can be accomplished with these fundamentals. The technology sector needs renewed research and investment in new materials to help address the challenges we face in a rapidly changing world. Leading TDK Ventures, the investment arm of TDK Corporation, I’m happy to report that a number of young companies have stepped up to the challenge of innovating materials science for the 21st century. In the past 18 months, we invested in multiple startups dedicated to reimagining the basic building blocks of materials science and identifying new ways to push technology forward – in fact, three of them have successfully gone public or been acquired over the last year. This demonstrates not just a renewed interest in materials science research but also highlights the momentum for healthy returns on materials science investments. Or, as I like to say, it’s the return of materials science returns. Materials science at the atom level For high-tech investors, materials science went out of favor the past 10 or 15 years, because investment in software development companies began to deliver very healthy returns in relatively short time frames – often in as little as two or three years. Product development in materials science traditionally requires much more capital and takes a lot longer to generate returns than software startups. Today’s hardware innovators are making it clear that we’ve only begun to scratch the surface of what’s possible in the materials sciences. Unlike 20 years ago, we can develop products like graphene, which consists of a single layer of carbon atoms that is about 200 times stronger than steel and an excellent conductor of both heat and electricity. Nanometer-scale materials like this enable the design of ultra-low power, high-performance components that can integrate multiple functionalities onto very small devices and create opportunities that were impossible only a few years ago. With advances like this, the future of materials science is regaining its luster. Investors welcome materials science startups Three materials science startups with successful exits: GenCell, which went public in 2020, develops fuel cell solutions that offer clean backup power for a variety of commercial, industrial and healthcare operations and can be used for off-grid power and rural electrification in a wide range of temperature and humidity conditions. GenCell’s revolutionary process creates hydrogen-on-demand from anhydrous ammonia (NH3) at 10 times the efficiency of other solutions, without any outside electrical power.GenCell fuel cells enable hydrogen and oxygen to react in an emissions-free chemical process that produces electricity and heat, with pure water as the only by-product. Origin, acquired by Stratasys in 2020, creates 3D printer platforms that offer an additive manufacturing approach to mass manufacturing, with the freedom of open materials. Using Origin 3D printers, customers can print products of their own design from a range of materials, or from their own proprietary materials. Origin maintains strategic partnerships with the largest materials science companies in the world and print products for leading companies in the dental, medical, and industrial sectors. SLD Laser, acquired by KYOCERA in 2020, produced the world's first high-luminance, fully integrated white laser light emitter. The emitter is based on a gallium nitride solid-state laser projected through a high-performance phosphor element that converts the blue laser to broad-spectrum, incoherent white light that eliminates eye safety risks. The resulting light source emits 100x more luminance, projects 10 times the distance than an LED, and is being incorporated into a range of specialty, display and automotive lighting applications. Materials matter Many of the fundamental technological innovations of the last century, including advances in semiconductors, biotechnology, and server technology, were based on breakthroughs in materials science. At TDK Ventures, we believe the only way to advance further is to return to materials research to identify new ways to expand the horizons of science and technology. For some established companies, this may require a pivot from traditional ways of getting things done and embracing fresh ways of thinking. It means thinking more like a startup and welcoming the challenges of change and new opportunities. We also believe that these innovations should not just push the boundaries of existing disciplines but contribute to preserving our environment and improving the lives of people. This is one of the founding principles of TDK Ventures: Our investments must contribute to digital and energy transformation and help lead to a more sustainable world. Our goal is to help every startup we invest in achieve their full potential for positive world impact. For instance, GenCell fuel cells bring emissions-free electrical power to rural communities far from traditional electrical grids, helping raise living standards without reliance on polluting diesel generators. Laser lights from SLD Laser are more power-efficient than traditional LED lamps, as lights last over 10,000 hours longer than equivalent HID (high-density discharge) lamps. Origin 3D printer platforms enable safe, localized manufacturing, and are geared toward minimizing energy waste in the supply chain. We’re just scratching the surface of what’s possible with materials science. At TDK Ventures, we’re dedicated to delivering meaningful financial results while exploring the potential of new and transformative technologies to bring positive change to our society and environment. Nicolas Sauvage is managing director at TDK Ventures, the corporate venture capital (CVC) arm of Japan-headquartered electronics manufacturer TDK Corporation. TDK Ventures is a technology-focused venture fund, investing globally in early-stage startups that leverage fundamental materials science to bolster innovations in Digital Transformation (DX), Energy Environmental Transformation (EX), unlocking an attractive and sustainable future for the world.