From charging to AI: power GaN’s next chapter
Power GaN has spent the past several years proving itself in consumer fast chargers. According to Yole Group's new report, 'Power GaN 2026', that phase is ending.
GaN is now entering a broader, multi-market adoption cycle where AI data centres, electric vehicles, industrial systems, and renewable energy all become meaningful demand drivers.
For chipmakers, foundries, and investors, understanding where this next wave of growth is concentrated and which companies are positioned to capture it is critical to strategic planning over the next five years, says Yole.
"For years, power GaN’s story was almost entirely about the phone charger in your pocket. That’s no longer the full picture. AI infrastructure is opening a second, arguably bigger chapter for this technology, and it’s moving fast," commented Roy Dagher, technology and market analyst, Compound Semiconductors, at Yole Group.
Consumer and mobile electronics remain the market’s anchor segment by revenue, expected to reach $1.7b in 2031 with continued fast-charger and appliance adoption. But the report’s sharpest growth curve belongs to automotive, where onboard chargers and emerging 48V architectures push the segment to a 57 percent CAGR, and to telecom/infrastructure, where AI-driven data centre demand drives a 45 percent CAGR to $750m.
Further out, humanoid robots stand out as a potential growth engine beyond 2030. Actuator drives and battery management in a humanoid platform all call for high power density within tight weight and thermal budgets – the conditions where GaN’s efficiency and small form factor matter most. Volumes are negligible today but if humanoid platforms reach commercial scale in the 2030s they would add a demand pool distinct from consumer, automotive, and data centre applications.
The competitive landscape is shifting too.
Innoscience holds the top spot in 2025 and continues to widen its footprint into automotive and data centres. Infineon Technologies posted the year’s sharpest gains on the back of data centre and renewable energy wins, and Renesas kept expanding across multiple fronts.
Navitas took a different path, deliberately trading share in low-margin fast-charging for a foothold in higher-value segments. Onsemi is the most significant new entrant: it moved into power GaN through a collaboration with GlobalFoundries on 650V devices built on a 200mm GaN-on-silicon platform, alongside a parallel wafer-supply arrangement with Innoscience, with customer sampling starting in the first half of 2026 and AI data centres, EVs, and renewable energy as its stated targets.
Behind the leaders, a fast-growing group of suppliers – Rohm, Texas Instruments, STMicroelectronics, Nexperia, and Chinese entrants including GaNext and Southchip,– is picking up share as GaN spreads to more corners of the industry.
The manufacturing shift is one of the report’s central findings.
Rather than consolidating around a single dominant foundry, the industry is fragmenting productively: GlobalFoundries has licensed GaN technology from TSMC and is qualifying production in the US, VIS and PSMC are absorbing volume as customers move off TSMC, and Samsung, DB HiTek, and SK Keyfoundry are each building early GaN capabilities in Korea. At the same time, IDMs including Infineon, Renesas, onsemi, STMicroelectronics, ROHM, and Nexperia continue investing in their own capacity and vertical integration, often through acquisition.
Poshun Chiu, principal technology and market analyst, Semiconductor Substrates & Materials, at Yole Group said: "TSMC stepping back from GaN foundry work could have been read as a warning sign for the industry. Instead, it’s turning into one of the clearest signals of how much this ecosystem has matured. Other foundries are moving in fast, and the manufacturing base is coming out more distributed than before."
