Media365
China is expected to remain the world’s biggest buyer of semiconductor manufacturing equipment through 2027, as domestic chipmakers keep expanding capacity under Beijing’s push for greater tech self-sufficiency, according to a new industry report.
Sustained investment across both mature-node and leading-edge processes would keep China the largest market for chipmaking tools until at least 2027, industry association SEMI said.
Even so, the association expects the pace to ease, with sales beginning a gradual decline in 2026.
Taiwan and South Korea were forecast to hold on to second and third place, respectively, for equipment spending through 2027.
SEMI said Taiwan’s strong 2025 investment outlook was anchored in large-scale capacity additions to meet rising demand from artificial intelligence and high-performance computing.
South Korea’s outlays, meanwhile, were being driven by advanced memory chip projects – particularly efforts to ramp up production of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), a key component for AI servers.
