Friday, January 16, 2026
TSMC began reducing 8-inch capacity in 2025 and plans to shut down some fabs entirely by 2027. Samsung has adopted an even more aggressive approach, also cutting capacity last year. TrendForce estimates global 8-inch capacity fell by 0.3% in 2025 - the first year of negative growth - and expects the decline to widen to 2.4% in 2026, despite modest additions from SMIC and Vanguard.
The contraction comes as demand for power ICs used in AI servers and edge applications continues to grow. China’s localisation drive has further boosted orders for BCD and PMIC processes at domestic foundries, pushing utilisation rates to full capacity by mid-2025. This surge prompted Chinese fabs to implement price increases in the second half of last year, with spillover orders benefiting Korean foundries.
Concerns over potential capacity shortages have led PC and notebook supply chains to pull in orders early, adding pressure to an already constrained market. TrendForce projects global 8-inch utilisation will rise from 75–80% in 2025 to 85–90% in 2026.
With tighter supply expected, some foundries have informed customers of planned price hikes ranging from 5% to 20% across nodes and platforms. Unlike 2025, when increases were limited to legacy processes, this round is expected to be broader. However, uncertainty in consumer markets and margin pressures from rising memory and advanced-node costs may temper the scale of these adjustments.
By: DocMemory
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