On June 17, it was reported that the demand for AI servers, edge AI, and high-performance computing is driving upgrades in power architectures, gradually heating up the market for power management integrated circuits (PMICs). Affected by tight supply in mature process foundry services and rising wafer foundry quotes, the market anticipates an improvement in the bargaining power of the analog IC and PMIC supply chains. Silicon Motion, GigaDevice, and Anpec had varying operational performances in the first five months of this year, but with the impetus from AI power supplies, DDR5 PMICs, and fan motor driver ICs, their operations are expected to improve in the second half of the year. In the industry, the supply-demand dynamics for 8-inch wafer mature processes are changing, with major players like TSMC and Samsung adjusting their capacity allocations, leading to limited global supply growth. However, increased demand for AI power management ICs, power components, display driver ICs, and automotive/industrial control applications is driving a rebound in capacity utilization. Some wafer foundries have already begun to raise their 8-inch foundry prices. Although terminal (Note: 'terminal demand' was not translated here to retain HTML-like placeholder, but should be 'end-user demand' in proper context) demand remains to be seen, the supply-demand reversal has made PMIC quotes more favorable. Industry analysis indicates that over the past two years, PMICs have been under pressure in terms of quotes and capacity utilization due to inventory corrections in consumer electronics. This year, with the baton passing to demand from AI servers, data centers, DDR5, automotive, and industrial control applications, coupled with tightening capacity in mature processes, PMICs are expected to transition from a cyclical recovery to structural growth.
