On January 13, TrendForce's investigation revealed recent shifts in the supply-demand dynamics of 8-inch wafers. Two industry giants, TSMC and Samsung, are progressively scaling back their production. In contrast, the demand for AI-related Power ICs is experiencing a steady uptick. Meanwhile, consumer product manufacturers are proactively stockpiling inventory, driven by concerns over escalating IC costs and the anticipated constraints on production capacity in the latter half of the year. Beyond the consistently high utilization rates of 8-inch wafer production capacity in mainland China foundries since 2025, manufacturers in other regions have also witnessed a surge in customer orders for 2026, thereby enhancing their capacity utilization rates. Consequently, foundries are actively contemplating price increases.

Since 2025, TSMC has been gradually trimming its 8-inch production capacity, with intentions to completely cease production at certain facilities by 2027. Samsung, too, embarked on production cuts in 2025, adopting a more proactive approach. TrendForce forecasts that the global 8-inch production capacity will witness a decline of roughly 0.3% in 2025, marking the onset of negative growth. In 2026, despite modest capacity expansion plans by companies like SMIC and Vanguard International Semiconductor, these efforts will fall short of offsetting the production reductions implemented by the two major manufacturers. As a result, the anticipated annual capacity reduction rate is projected to widen to 2.4%. Some foundries remain optimistic that the 8-inch production capacity will become more constrained in 2026 and have consequently informed their customers of a planned 5-20% hike in foundry prices.