A bonding wire suitable for a vehicle mounted device, having superior capillary wear resistance and surface damage resistance while maintaining high bonding reliability and further satisfying total performance including ball forming performance and wedge bonding properties is provided. The bonding wire for the semiconductor device has a Cu alloy core material, a Pd coating layer formed on the surface of the Cu alloy core material, and a Cu surface layer formed on the surface of the Pd coating layer and is characterized in that the bonding wire includes Ni, the concentration of Ni to the wire as a whole is 0.1-1.2 percent by weight, the thickness of the Pd coating layer is 0.015-0.150 [mu]m, and the thickness of the Cu surface layer is 0.0005-0.0070 [mu]m.