The Chip Selloff May Be Overdone. Wall Street Sees More Growth Ahead
The chip trade is getting another shot at a comeback. AI safety worries knocked semiconductor stocks this week, but Wall Street is looking past the selloff to a longer buildout. The next test is whether booming data-center and memory demand can outrun fears of a broader slowdown.
Scaling up: Bank of America sees the semiconductor market reaching $3.2T by 2030, fueled by memory, data centers, and recoveries in automotive and industrial demand. Analyst Vivek Arya sees “no signs of slowing” across orders, supply commitments, and pricing, with 2027 largely booked across compute, networking, and memory. That makes one rough trading week look small against a much longer chip buildout.
- Bank of America expects the semiconductor market to reach $1.7T in 2026 before nearly doubling to $3.2T by 2030.
- Arya sees Micron, Intel, Lam Research, and Applied Materials leading the next leg of the chip cycle.
Memory And Equipment Carry The Next Leg
The next wave of growth is moving into the plumbing of AI. Bank of America raised its 2030 chip forecast by nearly $470B, with memory and servers driving much of the increase. As AI systems demand more processors, networking, and high-bandwidth memory, equipment makers also stand to benefit from the extra factory steps needed to produce advanced chips.
- BofA expects server-chip sales to grow about 24% annually through 2030, outpacing every other major semiconductor end market.
- Memory sales could reach $1.85T by 2030, while server-chip sales climb to roughly $849B over the same period.
Buying the dip: Mizuho sees the recent semiconductor pullback as a buying opportunity after AI leaders raised questions about the pace of frontier-model development. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell about 6% Monday morning, but the firm says spending plans from AI labs and cloud providers remain intact. Now the focus shifts to memory pricing, equipment orders, and capacity commitments. If those stay strong, the chip cycle still has plenty of runway.