AI revolution drives demand for specialized chips, reshaping global markets – Computerworld

Turbulence in the market for some chipmakers

Although global sales of semiconductor chips fell about 11% in 2023, falling from a record $574.1 billion the previous year to about $534 billion, the decline did not last long. Sales are expected to grow 22% in 2025, driven by the adoption of artificial intelligence and stabilization in PC and smartphone sales, Morales said.

“If you’re building a memory or AI accelerator right now, like Nvidia, Broadcom, AMD or even Marvel, you’re doing very well,” Morales said. “But if you are a semiconductor company like ST Micro, Infinium, Renesas or Texas Instruments, you were hit hard by excess inventory and macroeconomics that were uncertain for the industrial and automotive sectors. These two markets performed better last year, but they have been hit very hard this year.”

According to Morales, most LLMs used today rely on publicly available data, but more than 80% of the world’s data is owned by businesses that don’t share it with platforms like OpenAI or Anthropic. This trend benefits processor companies, especially Nvidia, Qualcomm and AMD. Highly specialized system-on-chip (SoC) technology with lower prices and greater power efficiency will begin to dominate the market as organizations adopt the technology internally.