Omdia raises 2026 semiconductor revenue forecast as AI demand tightens memory and packaging supply

Omdia raised its 2026 semiconductor revenue forecast to 94.1% year-over-year growth, citing stronger-than-expected AI-driven demand for memory and continued supply constraints across high bandwidth memory, advanced packaging and leading-edge foundry nodes. The firm said memory ICs are now expected to make up more than 50% of total semiconductor revenue in 2026. The supply squeeze is most acute in HBM, which is more complex to produce than standard DRAM and is manufactured at scale by only SK Hynix, Samsung and Micron. AI accelerators from NVIDIA, AMD, Intel and Google are intensifying that demand, while advanced packaging has become another choke point, with TSMC's dedicated lines running at full utilization and equipment lead times slowing expansion. Leading-edge capacity is also under pressure, with TSMC's 2nm and 3nm nodes largely booked by NVIDIA, AMD, Broadcom and Apple. Omdia said computing and data storage will be the fastest-growing application market in 2026, rising by more than 150% year over year to approach $1 trillion, driven by data center servers, memory-intensive workloads and higher memory pricing. The firm said higher memory and packaging costs are spilling into smartphones, PCs, consumer electronics, automotive and industrial markets. It expects premium smartphones, wearables, game consoles and OLED TVs to post meaningful semiconductor revenue gains, helped by rising component costs and sustained demand.