Revenue Growth Signals Market Turnaround
The semiconductor industry posted robust performance in the third quarter of 2025, with revenue surging 31% year over year to US$216 billion. This marked a significant acceleration from the second quarter’s 27% growth, indicating a strengthening recovery trajectory for the sector. Profit after tax and minority interest (PATMI) rose even more dramatically, jumping 93% year-over-year to US$84 billion, representing the highest annual increase since the third quarter of 2024.
Technology Transition Drives Growth
The sector’s strong performance was primarily driven by cloud service providers’ strategic transition to cutting-edge technology solutions. Key drivers included the adoption of NVIDIA’s Blackwell GB300 GPUs and AMD’s MI350 series GPUs, as hyperscalers continued their aggressive capital expenditure programmes. This technological shift reflects the industry’s ongoing evolution toward more advanced processing capabilities to meet growing computational demands.
Competitive Dynamics in the GPU Market
Despite intensifying competition, NVIDIA has maintained its dominant position in the GPU market with over 90% market share across the past two quarters. This resilience comes even as competitors offer compelling alternatives, with Google’s TPU delivering an estimated 70% better performance per watt and a lower average selling price (~ 46%) than NVIDIA’s Blackwell GPUs. Similarly, AMD’s MI350 GPU provides approximately 11% better performance per watt and 29% lower pricing.
However, NVIDIA’s competitive advantage lies in its CUDA software ecosystem, which creates substantial switching costs for customers considering alternatives from AMD or Google. While competitive pricing may pressu margins, its CUDA software ecosystem continues to provide significant protection for its market position.
Processor and Memory Outlook
The processor and memory segments have experienced five consecutive quarters of decelerating growth since Q3 2024, with trailing twelve-month revenue growth moderating to 51% and 29% respectively. However, analysts believe this deceleration is approaching its trough, supported by hyperscalers’ sustained 66% year-over-year capital expenditure growth in Q3 2025, following 65% and 62% growth in the previous quarters.
This article has been auto-generated using PhillipGPT. It is based on a report by a Phillip Securities Research analyst.
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