EMD Electronics: workforce gap is top chip capacity barrier
EMD Electronics, the North American electronics arm of Merck KGaA, has published a survey of 200 semiconductor industry professionals that maps the principal obstacles to meeting surging AI-driven chip demand. The findings point to a workforce gap as the single largest barrier, ahead of fab construction or materials supply, while sustainability has shifted from a compliance checkbox to an operational bottleneck.
The survey, commissioned and executed in September 2026 and fielded by market research firm IntelliSurvey, covered respondents at integrated device manufacturers, foundries and fabless companies. Gartner's forecast of $1.6 trillion in worldwide semiconductor revenue for 2026, a 92% increase over 2025, provides the macro backdrop against which the findings land.
Capacity constraints
Three findings from the survey stand out. First, 75% of respondents identified skilled workforce availability as the biggest barrier to accelerating domestic semiconductor investment, outranking capital expenditure and equipment lead times. Second, two-thirds cited advanced packaging as a significant obstacle, driven by demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM), with 62% also flagging testing infrastructure as a bottleneck. Third, the supply chain's dependence on non-substitutable speciality materials is acute: 59% rated advanced packaging materials as most critical to technology roadmaps, followed by ultra-high-purity chemicals and solvents at 42% and atomic layer deposition (ALD) precursors at 39%.
On AI adoption within chip manufacturing itself, the data suggests a narrower footprint than the sector's public narrative implies. While AI is broadly used in chip design (55%), yield prediction (51%) and electronic design automation (47%), uptake inside manufacturing operations is considerably lower. Only 24% of respondents said their organisations use AI in capacity planning, and just 14% in factory scheduling. Katherine Hutchinson, US Managing Director of EMD Electronics, said the gap shows that "while it may appear AI is pervasive throughout the semiconductor ecosystem, it is much less widely incorporated into actual manufacturing processes."
Resilience over reshoring, and a sustainability crunch
The survey pushes back against a binary reshoring narrative. Ninety-four percent of respondents said their organisations are investing or plan to invest in North America, but more than half are simultaneously investing in Northeast Asia (Japan, South Korea and Taiwan) and 38% in Europe. The underlying goal, the report argues, is geographic diversification of supply chains rather than full domestic replication.
On sustainability, 71% said their organisations are investing in energy-efficient processes or renewable energy. Nearly half characterised energy and water constraints as critical or significant, and two-thirds said the problem has grown more severe over the past 18 months, driven by the power and ultra-pure-water demands of advanced-node scaling. Responses to those constraints include energy-reduction programmes at 64% of organisations, water recycling at 43% and lower-emission process development at 42%.
Market and regulatory context
The workforce finding aligns with assessments from the US CHIPS and Science Act implementation office, which has flagged technician and engineer pipelines as a limiting factor in realising the $52 billion in domestic semiconductor incentives. Advanced packaging, also flagged in the survey, has attracted dedicated funding under the CHIPS Act's National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program (NAPMP), reflecting broad recognition that back-end capacity is as strategically significant as front-end wafer production.
For materials suppliers such as EMD Electronics, the survey's emphasis on speciality chemicals and ALD precursors underlines a commercial point: as chip architectures grow more complex, the criticality of process materials suppliers to their customers' roadmaps increases. Buyers will be watching whether the survey's sustainability data prompts further disclosure commitments from tier-one suppliers as the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) extends its reach to non-EU subsidiaries of EU-headquartered companies, including Merck KGaA's North American operations, from financial year 2026 onwards.