From a corporate perspective, TSMC remains the semiconductor company with the largest capital expenditure scale in the world. TSMC expects its capital expenditure to be between $52 billion and $56 billion in 2026, an increase of 27% to 37% compared to 2025.

TSMC stated that the growing demand in the fields of 5G, artificial intelligence, and high-performance computing is the main factor driving the expansion of capital expenditures.

Samsung Electronics followed closely and announced that it will invest over 11 trillion Korean won (approximately 74 billion US dollars) by 2026.

According to estimates, about 34 billion US dollars of Samsung's investment will be used for research and development and non semiconductor fields, while the remaining 40 billion US dollars will be invested in the semiconductor field, an increase of 20% compared to 2025.

SK Hynix expects a capital expenditure of approximately $20.5 billion in 2026, a year-on-year increase of 17%, mainly for the expansion of HBM4 production capacity for M15x.

Micron Technology is more aggressive in its performance. The company announced that its capital expenditures for the fiscal year 2026 (as of August this year) will exceed $25 billion, far exceeding analysts' expectations of $22.4 billion.

Intel's capital expenditure in 2025 is $17.7 billion, a decrease of 29% from 2024.

The Citigroup report predicts that Intel's capital expenditures will stabilize in the range of $15 billion to $16 billion in 2026.

Intel, which has been tied with Samsung and TSMC in terms of capital expenditure for many years, has been surpassed by SK Hynix in 2025 and is expected to be surpassed by Micron Technology in 2026.

There is a trend of differentiation in the camp of wafer foundries. Except for Grofond, which expects a 70% increase in capital expenditures in 2026, the capital expenditures of other wafer foundries are expected to remain stable or decline.

Infineon announced that it will increase its capital expenditure for the 2026 fiscal year to approximately 2.7 billion euros, a year-on-year increase of approximately 55%, mainly for expanding power semiconductor production capacity related to AI data centers.

The entry of new players into the industry has become an important growth point for capital expenditures. On March 21st, Musk announced the Terrafab wafer fab plan, which will specifically supply semiconductor devices to companies such as Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI.

The factory is located in Austin, Texas, with a total investment of between $20 billion and $25 billion. After completion, it will use a 2-nanometer process and produce 1 million wafers per month.