This post is based on John Kibarian’s keynote given at the PDF Solutions CONNECT event on October 15, 2026. The recording and slides of this presentation can be found here: https://www.pdf.com/users-conference/connect-2026/next-generation-pdf-solutions-platform-for-the-global-semiconductor-industry/

AI is the most consequential shift the semiconductor industry has faced, not because it is driving an upcycle, but because it is changing how the industry works.

The industry has seen big transformations before. Mobile and the internet reshaped what semiconductor companies sold, but they did not change how fabs, fabless companies and their supply chains operated. AI does both. It drives unprecedented demand for silicon, and is simultaneously reshaping the tools, data and collaboration models used to design, manufacture and test silicon.

We began reimagining our portfolio around an AI-first premise roughly four years ago, when ChatGPT first appeared. Today, the result is a next-generation platform that spans three long-standing areas of our work. The first two are accelerating yield ramps for new technologies and applying the latest IT technology to manufacturing data. The final area is connecting manufacturing operations across the supply chain, a thread strengthened by the 2025 acquisition of secureWISE.

Efficiency is today’s watchword. Efficiency is what matters. A manufacturing executive told suppliers recently that he could not get more tools than had already been promised. His only path to meeting demand was getting more out of the tools he had, a sentiment now heard across the industry, and shapes three challenges AI poses for semiconductor manufacturing:

Growth numbers are no longer in question, as the semiconductor industry reached a trillion dollars earlier than projected.

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