New Delhi [India] May 7 (ANI): The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) reported an 18.8 per cent increase in global semiconductor sales for the first quarter of 2025 as compared with the first quarter of 2024. As per the report, March 2025 sales hit a record USD 55.9 billion, up 1.8 per cent from February 2025.'Global semiconductor demand remains high, with first-quarter sales substantially outpacing the first quarter of last year,' said John Neuffer, SIA president and CEO.'Year-to-year sales increased by more than 17 per cent for the 11th consecutive month, driven by a year-to-year sales increase of roughly 45 per cent in the Americas,' he added.Q1 2025 sales registered a slight decline of 2.8 per cent compared to the fourth quarter of 2024.Regionally, on a year-on-year basis, March sales showed growth of 45.3 per cent in the Americas, followed by Asia Pacific/All Other (15.4 per cent), China (7.6 per cent), and Japan (5.8 per cent). On the other hand, Europe experienced a slight decline (-2.0 per cent). 'Monthly sales data is compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization,' SIA said in a press release. The SIA represents 99 per cent of the U.S. semiconductor industry by revenue and nearly two-thirds of non-U.S. chip firmsHowever, WSTS sees continued expansion for the semiconductor market in 2025, with an 11.2 per cent rise, which will bring global market valuation to an estimated USD 697 billion.'The growth will be driven predominantly by the Logic and Memory sectors, which together are projected to exceed USD 400 billion in value. This includes a year-over-year growth of over 17 per cent for Logic and 13 per cent for Memory,' WSTS said.WSTS also forecasts that regions like the Americas and Asia Pacific are expected to maintain their double-digit growth on a year-over-year basis.On the national level, at the recently concluded WAVES 2025 Summit, the focus was brought to India's unique opportunity to leapfrog legacy broadcast infrastructure by embracing Direct-to-Mobile (D2M) technology from semiconductor chips to AI-powered Laptops. (ANI)