Key Findings
Global semiconductor sales in June 2026 reached an unprecedented monthly record of $134.5 billion, representing a 2.2-fold increase year-over-year. This historic growth is primarily attributed to the explosive expansion in demand for High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), logic chips, and advanced foundries, driven by massive investments in AI data centers. While SK Hynix has decided on significant investments to meet AI memory demand, TSMC achieved an impressive yield of over 99% for its 5.5-reticle size CoWoS packages, yet still points to memory supply and Ajinomoto Build-up Film (ABF) substrates as persistent bottlenecks in the overall semiconductor supply chain.
Technical Details
- HBM is a stacked DRAM technology that provides the high bandwidth critical for AI accelerator performance. The surging demand for HBM emphasizes not only its production capacity but also the importance of advanced packaging technologies like CoWoS to integrate it.
- TSMC’s CoWoS (Chip on Wafer on Substrate) is a 2.5D packaging technology that integrates GPUs and HBM on a silicon interposer. Achieving over 99% yield signifies the maturity and high efficiency of this complex technology. However, this high yield, the ultimate product supply is constrained by the production capacity of HBM chips themselves and the shortage of ABF substrates, which are indispensable for CoWoS packages.
- ABF substrates are high-performance materials used in FC-BGA packaging, known for their excellent fine-line routing capabilities and thermal properties. However, their manufacturing requires sophisticated technology and equipment, and current supply struggles to keep pace with demand.
Background & Context
The rapid advancement of AI technology has pushed the demand for computing and memory in data centers to unprecedented levels. Particularly, the training and inference of large language models (LLMs) require vast quantities of HBM and high-performance logic chips. While the semiconductor industry is striving to expand production capacity to meet this surge, specific materials and components, especially HBM and ABF substrates, which are crucial elements of advanced backend processes, remain bottlenecks in the entire supply chain. This indicates that not just manufacturing chips, but also the ability to efficiently package and integrate them, determines competitive advantage in the AI era.
Strategic Significance & Outlook
The record-breaking increase in global semiconductor sales suggests that AI-driven market growth will continue. Aggressive investments by major memory manufacturers like SK Hynix will contribute to improving HBM supply, but the ABF substrate supply issue could constrain the growth rate of the AI semiconductor market in the short term. The industry as a whole will require concerted efforts across the supply chain to resolve bottlenecks and further investment in material manufacturers. While TSMC’s high CoWoS yield demonstrates technological breakthroughs, building a balanced supply capacity across the entire ecosystem is crucial to unlock the market’s true potential.
Source: https://amiko.consulting/%E5%8D%8A%E5%B0%8E%E4%BD%93%E3%83%8B%E3%83%A5%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B9-20260812/
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