ENCOURAGING 2024/2025 INDICATORS FOR GLOBAL SEMICONDUCTOR GROWTH
Posted on July 25, 2024 by ATREG
On July 9th in itsMid-Year Total Semiconductor Equipment Forecast – OEM Perspective, SEMI reported that global sales of total semiconductor manufacturing equipmentby original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) were forecast to set a new industry record, reaching $109 billion in 2024 and growing by 3.4% year-on-year. Semiconductor manufacturing equipment growth is expected to continue in 2025, with sales forecast to set a new high of $128 billion in 2025, driven by both front-end and back-end segments. The growth in total semiconductor manufacturing equipment sales already underway this year is forecast to be followed by a robust expansion of roughly 17% in 2025.
Earlier on July 5th, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) announced that global semiconductor industry sales hit $49.1 billion during May 2024, an increase by 19.3% compared to the May 2023 total of $41.2 billion and an increase by 4.1% compared to the April 2024 total of $47.2 billion. Monthly sales are compiled by theWorld Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organizationand represent a three-month moving average. The global semiconductor market has grown on a year-to-year basis during each month of 2024 and year-to-year sales in May increased by the largest percentage since April 2022. The Americas market experienced particularly strong growth, with a year-to-year sales increase by 43.6%.
There is also great news to report with regards to global semiconductor capacity. In June, SEMI’s latest quarterlyWorld Fab Forecastreported that to keep pace with unremitting growth in chip demand, the global semiconductor manufacturing industry was expected to increase capacity by 6% in 2024 and post a 7% gain in 2025, reaching a record capacity high of 33.7 million wafers per month (wpm: eight-inch equivalent). Leading-edge capacity for 5nm nodes and under is expected to grow by 13% in 2024, chiefly driven by generative artificial intelligence (AI) for data center training, inference, and leading-edge devices. To increase processing power efficiency, chipmakers including Intel, Samsung, and TSMC are poised to start production of 2nm Gate-All-Around (GAA) chips, boosting total leading-edge capacity growth by 17% in 2025. The proliferation of AI processing, from cloud computing to edge devices, is fueling the race to develop high-performance chips and driving a robust expansion of global semiconductor manufacturing capacity. This creates a virtuous cycle – AI will drive the growth of semiconductor content across a diverse range of applications, which in turn encourages further investment.
