ChipMOS Soars on AI Demand, Signals Broader Semiconductor Boom

HSINCHU, Taiwan – January 09, 2026 – ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES INC. today announced stellar fourth-quarter and December 2025 revenue figures, providing one of the clearest signals yet that the semiconductor industry is in the midst of a powerful upswing driven by insatiable demand for artificial intelligence and datacenter infrastructure.

The Taiwan-based outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) provider reported a 20.8% year-over-year increase in revenue for the fourth quarter, reaching NT$6,521.1 million (US$207.9 million). The momentum accelerated in the final month of the year, with December revenue climbing an impressive 23.8% year-over-year to NT$2,203.3 million (US$70.2 million). In its announcement, the company attributed the robust performance to an improved industry cycle, a favorable product mix, and particularly strong demand for memory products.

These figures not only represent a significant turnaround for ChipMOS after a market downturn in 2022 and 2023 but also serve as a crucial bellwether for the health of the entire technology ecosystem, confirming that the hardware backbone for the AI revolution is being built at a furious pace.

A Resurgent Industry Fueled by AI

ChipMOS's exceptional results are not happening in a vacuum. They are a direct reflection of a widespread, vigorous recovery across the global semiconductor market. After navigating a period of inventory correction and fluctuating demand, the industry is now entering what many analysts believe is a new supercycle, with AI serving as the primary catalyst.

Market research firms are uniformly bullish. Gartner projects the global semiconductor market will grow by nearly 13% in 2025, while the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization offers an even more optimistic forecast of 22% growth for the year, potentially pushing the market to an unprecedented US$975 billion in 2026.

The epicenter of this growth is the memory and datacenter segment. The complex algorithms powering generative AI and large language models require vast amounts of high-speed memory and processing power, leading to a massive build-out of datacenter capacity by hyperscalers like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft. This has triggered an unprecedented demand for memory chips, particularly high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and next-generation DRAM and NAND flash.

Industry reports indicate that a significant memory chip shortage is already underway and expected to persist into 2027. This supply-demand imbalance is causing prices to skyrocket. Analysts at TrendForce forecast that contract prices for conventional DRAM could surge by as much as 60% in the first quarter of 2026 alone, with NAND flash prices projected to rise by over 30% in the same period. The demand is so intense that major memory manufacturers are reportedly sold out of their 2026 capacity for high-end chips, shifting production away from consumer-grade products to serve the lucrative datacenter market.

The Critical Role of the OSAT Back-End

While chip designers like NVIDIA and memory makers like SK Hynix often dominate headlines, the boom would be impossible without the critical, and often overlooked, role of the OSAT sector. Companies like ChipMOS provide the essential final-stage manufacturing services—assembly, packaging, and testing—that transform silicon wafers into finished, functional chips ready for integration into servers, smartphones, and other devices.

As semiconductors become more complex, particularly the multi-die packages used in AI accelerators and HBM, the technical challenges in assembly and testing have grown exponentially. This makes specialized OSAT providers indispensable partners in the supply chain. ChipMOS's strong performance underscores the soaring demand for these back-end services.

The company's stated focus on "robust demand for memory products" is key. ChipMOS specializes in testing services for high-density memory and mixed-signal semiconductors, placing it directly in the path of the current market updraft. Its ability to test and validate the high-performance memory crucial for AI servers is a significant factor in its recent success. The 20.8% quarterly growth demonstrates that foundries and integrated device manufacturers are running at high capacity and require extensive testing support to meet the quality and reliability standards of the demanding datacenter environment.

Strategic Positioning Drives Outperformance

While a rising tide is lifting all boats in the OSAT sector, ChipMOS's results suggest a particularly effective strategy. The company's 20.8% year-over-year quarterly revenue growth stands out favorably when benchmarked against competitors. For instance, industry giant ASE Technology Holding reported consolidated revenue growth of 9.6% for the same period, although its more comparable Assembly, Testing, and Material (ATM) segment also showed very strong growth of 24.2%. Meanwhile, Amkor Technology had guided for a potential sequential decline in its fourth quarter.

This indicates that ChipMOS’s "favorable product mix" is more than just a talking point. By cultivating expertise and capacity in testing services for high-density memory and building relationships with clients in the computing and networking sectors, the company has successfully aligned its business with the most powerful growth engine in the market today. Its client base, which includes fabless firms, IC design houses, and direct-to-market computing equipment manufacturers, gives it a clear line of sight into the surging demand from data centers.

This strategic alignment has enabled a remarkable rebound from the industry-wide downturn that saw the company's revenues decline in 2022 and 2023. The latest figures show that ChipMOS is not only recovering but is capturing a significant share of the new growth opportunities. As the AI build-out continues and the demand for sophisticated memory solutions intensifies, the role of specialized OSAT providers will only become more critical, positioning companies like ChipMOS at the heart of the ongoing technological transformation.