Global chip market projected to exceed $1.6 tril. this year despite AI slowdown concerns: report

The global semiconductor market is projected to exceed $1.6 trillion in 2026, more than 1.5 times the forecast made earlier this year, on increased investment in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, a report showed Sunday. The outlook comes amid calls in some parts of the AI industry to slow development over concerns of losing control of the technology. In particular, memory chips produced by Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are expected to account for more than half of the global semiconductor market as the volume of data processed by AI systems soars, the Korea Eximbank's research center said in a report based on analysis by global market research firms, including TrendForce. Until last year, the global semiconductor market was expected to exceed $1 trillion only in 2030. But the outlook has been sharply revised up as major U.S. and Chinese hyperscalers, which operate large-scale data centers, have rapidly increased investment in AI infrastructure. As of the end of last month, prices of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and NAND flash memory chips stood at $25 and $30.5, resp