Since the second half of 2025, the global handset market has experienced increased pressure from tightening memory supply and rapidly rising prices, according to TrendForce’s latest smartphone research. These cost increases have led to higher prices for end products and a decline in consumer demand.
TSMC and Samsung are cutting 8-inch wafer capacity, pushing global 8-inch capacity to a projected 2.4% year-over-year decline in 2026. AI-driven demand for power ICs is becoming the key pillar supporting 8-inch fab utilization throughout the year. Foundries are considering price hikes of 5-20%, though weak end-market visibility and cost pressure from rising memory and advanced-node prices may cap actual increases.
TrendForce’s latest“Lithium Battery Industry Chain Monthly Price Report”indicates that the average price of battery-grade lithium carbonate surged 17% MoM in December 2025 to CNY 103,000 per metric ton. Prices of key raw materials, including copper, aluminum, cobalt, and electrolytes, also increased, driving up EV cell prices for square LFP, square ternary, and pouch ternary cells by 2–4% compared to November.
TrendForce’s latest investigations indicate that total global traction inverter installations for EVs1 reached 8.35 million units in 3Q25, representing a 22% increase YoY, driven by ongoing growth in the NEV2 market. BEVs and PHEVs were the main contributors to this expansion, with installation increases of 36% and 13.6%, respectively.
TrendForce’s recent investigations indicate that Nvidia has revised the HBM4 specifications for its Rubin platform in 3Q25, raising the required per-pin speed to above 11 Gbps. This change has necessitated that the three major HBM suppliers modify their designs.
