By Liuqian
Power semiconductor manufacturers are at a crossroads. The latest report by Yole Group establishes a clear coordinate system for the power semiconductor industry: the global power electronics market will grow from 2025 to 2031 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.1%, reaching a market size of $41.3 billion. On the ranking list, Infineon takes a commanding lead with a full product portfolio covering silicon (Si), silicon carbide (SiC), and gallium nitride (GaN), followed by Onsemi and STMicroelectronics in second and third place, respectively. Five Japanese companies follow closely, while five Chinese manufacturers—CR Micro (9th), Silan Microelectronics (10th), Nexperia under Wingtech Technology (11th), BYD Semiconductor (13th), and CRRC (20th)—have made it into the top 20.
More noteworthy than the rankings is a key judgment: after years of rapid expansion, the power semiconductor industry is entering a consolidation phase, with the focus of competition shifting from technological innovation itself to market-leading products, customer acquisition, and sales capabilities.
The recent product layouts and strategic moves of major manufacturers serve as a perfect footnote to this judgment. As the industry shifts from "everyone is growing" to "who wins what," the main lines of differentiation are emerging.
01. AI Power Delivery: kiloampere Currents Spawn New Tracks
Data center power supplies (including AI-related applications) are listed as one of the core growth engines driving the $41.3 billion market.
Infineon provided a quantified roadmap: AI rack power is undergoing a three-tier leap over three years—the first generation at 200kW, the second at 500kW, and the third at 1000kW, which will arrive within one to two years. In terms of revenue, AI data center power solutions are expected to grow from approximately €1.5 billion in fiscal 2026 to €2.5 billion in fiscal 2027. SG Micro showcased an AI computing board power delivery solution supporting up to 1200A output, while the SGM64040 for AI smartphones also needs to support 20A steady-state/30A transient current—the demand for power supply current in AI devices has leaped from the ampere level to the kiloampere level.
TI, on the other hand, demonstrated a complete 800V power delivery chain: from grid input to PSU, hot-swap protection, capacitive energy storage, high-voltage DC/DC, and finally on-board GPU core power delivery, with corresponding solutions for every stage. Among them, the 800V-to-6V DC/DC achieves a peak efficiency of 97.6% and a power density of 2kW/in³, while the 30kW AC/DC PSU reaches a peak efficiency of 98.5%. This hard data quantifies the efficiency ceiling of AI power delivery and also illustrates the inevitability of system voltage evolving towards 800V—Yole has also noted this trend, pointing out that NEVs are upgrading from 400V to 800V, solar power from 1000V to 1500V, and AI data centers are also developing towards 800V architectures.
Domestically, SG Micro's AI computing board power delivery solution supports up to 1200A output; in Dongwei Semiconductor's fundraising direction, 3300V to 10kV SiC MOSFETs are explicitly targeted at ultra-high voltage withstand scenarios such as solid-state transformers (SSTs). Cross-validation of insights from these three manufacturers across different angles indicates that SSTs are moving from proof-of-concept to engineering implementation. Traditional transformers have been facing a global shortage for two years, and continuously rising copper prices are pushing up costs, opening a window for substitution.
AI power delivery is not a single-chip issue, but a full-chain upgrade from isolation, conversion, and real-time control to power distribution architecture. Whoever can provide a more complete solution in this chain will gain a first-mover advantage in the "customer acquisition" stage.
02. SiC: Irreversible Substitution
Yole predicts that by 2031, SiC and GaN will account for 31% of the entire power semiconductor market. This figure itself indicates that the penetration trend of third-generation semiconductors is irreversible. However, Yole also made a judgment: the slowdown in the BEV market has led to an oversupply of SiC, intensifying price competition across the entire supply chain, while price wars among Chinese manufacturers have further accelerated the decline in SiC prices.
The dilemma facing SiC players is: technological substitution is accelerating, but market prices are falling.
Dongwei Semiconductor's second- and third-generation 650V and 1200V products are being delivered stably, the 1700V has passed customer testing and secured orders, and the fourth-generation 650V/750V/1200V has been successfully developed and is advancing validation. Foundchip Microelectronics offers a full range of 650V to 2300V SiC MOSFETs and SBDs, covering through-hole, surface-mount, top-side cooling, and high-power module packaging forms. The transition from 6-inch to 8-inch wafers is driving a rapid drop in manufacturing costs, and the substitution of silicon-based IGBTs in the high-voltage segment above 650V has become irreversible.
As the focus of SiC applications shifts to high-value-added fields such as data centers, building energy storage systems, large-scale transportation, defense, and ultra-high voltage systems, SiC will experience a divergence in application scenarios: in mass markets such as EV main drives, price competition will become increasingly fierce; while in high-value-added scenarios like data center power delivery and solid-state transformers, the technical premium of SiC remains valid.
Price wars are a double-edged sword. CR Micro, Silan Micro, and BYD Semiconductor making it into the global top 20 indicate that scale advantages have been established. However, the transition from device suppliers to system solution providers is the true key to determining survival during the consolidation period.
Compared to the oversupply controversy surrounding SiC, GaN is in a clearer upward trajectory. Yole points out that GaN applications are continuously expanding, mainly concentrated in consumer electronics power supplies, fast chargers, data center power supplies, and small high-frequency converters. At the same time, it warns that the reliability of high-voltage devices, ecosystem maturity, and supply conditions remain challenges for its widespread application in automotive and high-power application fields.
Recent technological breakthroughs precisely point to a key step for GaN to break through bottlenecks. Infineon has globally launched the 300mm GaN power semiconductor wafer technology, with mass production expected from late 2026 to early 2027. Moving from 6-inch to 12-inch is not a simple size enlargement, but a qualitative change in unit cost and production capacity scale—this means GaN will leap from "usable" to "scalable" stages. Dongwei Semiconductor's low-voltage GaN HEMT has also achieved a breakthrough and is advancing towards mass production, moving towards a full matrix of high, medium, and low voltage. TI, with GaN as its core, is promoting the miniaturization of 800V data center power supplies, and GaN has become a mainstream choice in high-frequency, high-power-density power supplies.
Due to ongoing challenges in high-voltage device reliability, GaN will remain locked in medium- and low-voltage scenarios in the short term. However, once 12-inch mass production is realized, the two markets of consumer power supplies and data center power delivery will be sufficient to support the scaled growth of GaN.
03. Shift in Competition Focus: From Device Structure to Thermal Management
For power semiconductors, the key to future differentiation lies in the fact that the focus of technological innovation is shifting from the device structure itself to thermal management and advanced packaging technologies. Key technological trends include top-side cooling, double-sided cooling, copper clip bonding, silver sintering, low-inductance module layouts, and embedded die packaging.
The packaging innovations of various manufacturers highly align with this judgment. Toshiba has pioneered the industry's first DSOP double-sided heat dissipation package, which has been applied in mass production for steer-by-wire chassis; Foundchip Microelectronics follows the route of top-side cooling and modular packaging; Infineon's Q-DPAK and EasyPACK are both industry-first packages. There is no standard answer for heat dissipation solutions; double-sided cooling and top-side cooling each have their scenario adaptations, but whoever can dissipate heat more efficiently will directly determine the ceiling of power density.
The deeper implication of this trend is that when the performance gap at the device level narrows, and the conduction and switching losses of SiC no longer produce order-of-magnitude differences among manufacturers, the focus of competition shifts to packaging and thermal management. Whoever can dissipate heat more efficiently on a single chip can pack more power into the same volume.
04. Domestic Manufacturers Show Initial Scale, Solutions Yet to be Supplemented
Five Chinese manufacturers making it into the global top 20 is one of the most noteworthy structural changes in the Yole ranking. Driven by the demand of the world's largest domestic power device market, Chinese manufacturers are rapidly expanding their market shares in SiC wafers, discrete devices, EV power electronics, and industrial power modules.
Single-point breakthroughs by domestic manufacturers in segmented tracks have already proven their capabilities. JieJie Microelectronics' automotive-grade BMS insulation detection chips can withstand high temperatures of 125°C and offer a long lifespan; Yachuang Xinhe's 12-channel automotive-grade headlight drivers and 8mΩ low-resistance 4-channel high-side drivers fill the local high-end gap and are currently in short supply; Xinjin Electronics' magnetic isolation products lead peers by 50% in voltage withstand and anti-interference indicators.
Facing the rapid development of domestic power semiconductor brands, foreign giants choose to build moats with ecological advantages. Infineon's "From Grid to Core" full-chain layout, TI's complete power delivery solution from the grid to the GPU core, and Toshiba's system-level packaging application in steer-by-wire chassis—none of these are competitions of single devices, but competitions of system-level integration capabilities. Recently, the commissioning of Infineon's €5 billion Dresden mega-fab and the collaborative operation of TI's virtual integrated fab have also created a magnitude gap in capacity layout.
As the power semiconductor industry enters a consolidation period, the window for the entire market is also narrowing.
AI power delivery has spawned a new incremental axis for power semiconductors, with kA-level current management and SST solid-state transformers being the next industrialization turning point; SiC substitution is irreversible but supply is already oversupplied, and price competition will accelerate industry reshuffling; GaN is poised on the eve of 12-inch mass production; the focus of competition is shifting from device structure to thermal management and advanced packaging—these main lines of differentiation jointly point to a fact: the power semiconductor industry is shifting from "making the cake bigger" to "dividing the cake."
The $41.3 billion market pie is large enough, but growth is no longer inclusive. The real contest is on the mass production lines; whoever can translate technological advantages into customer lock-in will be able to stay at the table.