Semiconductors

Stratum 3 · Complex manufacturing and the built world

Semiconductors

Chipmakers turn ultra-pure silicon, gases and chemicals into the logic, memory, analogue and power chips that run every electronic product. World chip sales reached about US$ 796 billion in 2025, up 26% on 2024, driven by AI computing (WSTS). Design value sits mostly in the US, leading-edge manufacturing in Taiwan, and packaging in Taiwan and China.¹

India. By December 2025 the India Semiconductor Mission had approved 10 projects worth ₹1.60 lakh crore in six states, led by the Tata Electronics fab with PSMC (₹91,526 crore, about 50,000 wafer starts a month) and Micron's memory assembly and test plant (₹22,516 crore); India's chip consumption is put at US$ 45-50 billion and projected to reach US$ 100-110 billion by 2030⁴. India's real strength today is design talent working for global firms.

Where ₹100 of semiconductors output goes

Where ₹100 of semiconductors output goes Every rupee of sales is paid out to someone along the chain. This splits ₹100 of output by who finally receives it, so you can see how exposed the industry is to commodity, chemical and energy prices. Commodities ₹10.8 Chemicals ₹1.3 Energy ₹9.7 Wages and…

Price links with supplier industries

Price links with supplier industries How the industries this one buys from shape its prices: the share of its costs they make up, and how their prices have moved together. Tap a row for the charts. Hover or tap ? for what each measure means. Supplier industry Cost share Raw-material mix…

Follow one offering through the chain

Follow one offering through the chain 3 Example story · 7 steps · India A memory chip packaged in Sanand Follow a Micron memory package from design software and Taiwanese fabs to a Gujarat test line and the device makers who buy it. 1 / 7 · Design tools and IP Drawn first in design software >85%…

Buys directly from

Buys directly from Machinery and equipment Water and sanitation Depends on through its suppliers Electrical equipment Metal products Plastic and rubber products Sells directly into Vehicles, ships, rail, aircraft Computers and electronics Aerospace and defence Medical devices

Value chain, from upstream to the customer

Value chain, from upstream to the customer Criticality to the chain: 5 · Chokepoint 4 · Critical 3 · Important 2 · Supporting 1 · Commodity service Stage 1 Design tools and IP EDA software and IP-core vendors 5 · Chokepoint Sell the software used to design and verify chips and license ready-made…

What the whole chain draws on

What the whole chain draws on Every commodity, chemical and energy tile named by the enterprises above; ×n shows how many of them depend on it. Open any tile for its full detail. Commodities (19) Cu Copper ×5 He Helium ×2 H₂O Water ×2 Qz Silica sand ×2 W Tungsten ×2 Au Gold ×2 St Steel Al…

Chokepoints and risks

Chokepoints and risks Taiwan hosts over 70% of sub-10 nm logic capacity and TSMC about 70% of foundry revenue, so a Taiwan Strait disruption would halt most advanced chip supply 2 , 3 . One supplier makes all EUV lithography tools and 87% of lithography overall 2 , and three makers take about 92%…

Sources

Sources Global Semiconductor Market grows 26% in 2025 to 796B World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS), 2026 Emerging Resilience in the Semiconductor Supply Chain Semiconductor Industry Association and Boston Consulting Group, 2024 2Q25 foundry revenue surges 14.6%, TSMC extends market…

Relationship cards

• Electrical equipment: Modern electrical equipment is controlled by chips: power semiconductors switch the current in inverters, drives and chargers, and microcontrollers run meters, breakers and protection relays. The 2021 chip shortage showed that a missing chip worth a few dollars can hold up delivery of switchgear and drives, while chip fabs in turn depend on precise power and control equipment. (researched)
• Computers and electronics: Chips are the largest single input to phones, PCs and servers, and those devices in turn buy most of the world's chips. A swing in chip prices, above all memory, moves device costs within a quarter, and India's push to assemble devices under PLI is now being followed by subsidies to make the chips themselves. (researched)
• Data centres and cloud: Data-centre spending on AI is now the main engine of the chip industry: accelerators, server processors and high-bandwidth memory make up most of what goes into new AI halls. The tie runs both ways, since chip designers rent cloud compute for design runs, but the dominant risk is the capex cycle: if hyperscalers slow spending, chip sales fall with it. (researched)
• CMP slurries and pads: Chipmakers polish wafers flat after many layers using slurries and pads that are consumed as they work, so CMP consumables grow with wafer output and with the number of polishing steps that new chip designs add; supply is concentrated, with one firm holding over half of pads, and the abrasives tie the chain to China's rare earths. (researched)
• Data centres: Data centres now bring in about nine-tenths of the leading AI chip designer's revenue and over half of the leading foundry's, and each new generation of AI accelerator packs more power into a rack, so chip roadmaps set data centre power and cooling needs while chip designers themselves rely on large compute farms. (researched)
• Electronic specialty gases: Chipmaking runs on ultra-pure gases for etching, deposition, doping, chamber cleaning and lithography lasers, a market forecast at about $6.3 billion in 2025 that grows with memory layers and new fabs; some gases come from few places, as the 2022 war showed when Ukraine's neon plants, roughly half of chip-grade supply, shut down. (researched)
• Fluoropolymers (PTFE, PVDF): Fabs carry their ultra-pure acids and solvents in PFA and PTFE tubing, valves, tanks and filters because nothing else resists them without shedding contaminants, so chipmaking is exposed to the EU's planned group ban on PFAS and to supplier exits such as 3M's; industry says qualifying replacements can take 5 to 25 years. (researched)
• Machinery and equipment: Chipmaking depends on a few makers of fab tools, and those tools are now a target of export controls; in the other direction, machines from CNC lathes to pumps need power and control chips, so each industry is a supplier to the other. (researched)
• Tantalum: Chipmakers sputter tantalum into thin conductive and barrier layers, and the metal comes largely from conflict-affected central Africa, so a small input carries outsized sourcing and due-diligence risk. (researched)
• Transformers and power electronics: Power chips, silicon IGBTs and MOSFETs and newer silicon carbide devices, are the switches inside every inverter, drive and charger, so the power electronics build-out for EVs, solar and data centres is a demand driver for a distinct part of the chip industry; in return, chip fabs depend on precision power supplies to run their tools. (researched)
• Ultra-pure wet chemicals: Fabs clean, etch and strip wafers many times over with ultra-pure acids, peroxide and solvents, so these chemicals are made close to the big fab clusters in Taiwan, Korea, Japan and China; a new fab region such as India must import them or persuade suppliers to build locally. (researched)
• Helium: Chip fabs are the largest users of helium, about 20 to 25% of world use, for wafer cooling and lithography, and about a third of supply came from Qatar, so the halt of Qatari output from March 2026, only partly reversed by late 2026, put Korean and Taiwanese fabs on rationed supply even though helium is a tiny share of wafer cost. (researched)
• Hydrofluoric acid: Ultra-high-purity hydrofluoric acid is used to clean wafers and etch oxide layers in every fab, and its supply runs from mostly Chinese fluorspar through a few mainly Japanese purifiers; Japan's 2019 curbs on Korea showed how a cheap chemical can become a lever over chipmaking. (researched)
• Photoresists: Every lithography step in a fab prints its pattern into a photoresist, and the leading-edge grades, above all EUV resists, come almost entirely from a few Japanese firms; that made photoresist one of the three materials Japan used in its 2019 curbs on South Korea. (researched)
• Water: Chip fabs rinse wafers repeatedly with ultrapure water, so a large fab draws millions of gallons a day and cannot run if supply fails. Where fabs are built, and how much water they recycle, is now a siting decision alongside power and skills. (researched)
• Metal products: Metal products buys from Semiconductors; semiconductors buys from Metal products; metal products depends on semiconductors; semiconductors depends on metal products.
• AI and digital platforms: AI and digital platforms buys from Semiconductors; AI and digital platforms depends on semiconductors.
• Aerospace and defence: Aerospace and defence buys from Semiconductors; aerospace and defence depends on semiconductors.
• Construction and infrastructure: Semiconductors buys from Construction and infrastructure; semiconductors depends on construction and infrastructure.
• Education and research: Education and research buys from Semiconductors; education and research depends on semiconductors.
• Healthcare services: Healthcare services buys from Semiconductors; healthcare services depends on semiconductors.
• Medical devices: Medical devices buys from Semiconductors; medical devices depends on semiconductors.
• Plastic and rubber products: Semiconductors buys from Plastic and rubber products; semiconductors depends on plastic and rubber products.
• Public administration, defence and security: Public administration, defence and security buys from Semiconductors; public administration, defence and security depends on semiconductors.
• Software and IT services: Semiconductors buys from Software and IT services; semiconductors depends on software and IT services.
• Telecommunications: Telecommunications buys from Semiconductors; telecommunications depends on semiconductors.
• Transport and logistics: Semiconductors buys from Transport and logistics; semiconductors depends on transport and logistics.
• Vehicles, ships, rail, aircraft: Vehicles, ships, rail, aircraft buys from Semiconductors; vehicles, ships, rail, aircraft depends on semiconductors.
• Waste and recycling: Waste and recycling buys from Semiconductors; waste and recycling depends on semiconductors.
• Water and sanitation: Semiconductors buys from Water and sanitation; semiconductors depends on water and sanitation.
• AC transmission: Semiconductors depends on AC transmission.
• Aluminium: Semiconductors depends on aluminium.
• Argon: Semiconductors depends on argon.
• Cobalt: Semiconductors depends on cobalt.
• Copper: Semiconductors depends on copper.
• Distribution grids, mini-grids and interconnectors: Semiconductors depends on distribution grids, mini-grids and interconnectors.
• Energy in buildings: Semiconductors depends on energy in buildings.
• Epoxy resins: Semiconductors depends on epoxy resins.
• Fluorspar: Semiconductors depends on fluorspar.
• Gallium: Semiconductors depends on gallium.
• Gold: Semiconductors depends on gold.
• Graphite: Semiconductors depends on graphite.
• Hafnium: Semiconductors depends on hafnium.
• Heat pumps, air conditioning and refrigeration: Semiconductors depends on heat pumps, air conditioning and refrigeration.
• Hydrogen: Semiconductors depends on hydrogen.
• Nitrogen gas: Semiconductors depends on nitrogen gas.
• Polysilicon: Semiconductors depends on polysilicon.
• Rare earths: Semiconductors depends on rare earths.
• Silica sand: Semiconductors depends on silica sand.
• Silicon: Semiconductors depends on silicon.
• Silver: Semiconductors depends on silver.
• Steel: Semiconductors depends on steel.
• Sulfur: Semiconductors depends on sulfur.
• Tin: Semiconductors depends on tin.
• Tungsten: Semiconductors depends on tungsten.