The chip shortage that is impacting the supply chain is causing massive issues in many industries, but for semiconductor manufacturers times have never been better with profits soaring.
So, it’s no surprise that with many new fabs due to come online in the next 10 years to meet a projected 5% growth in global chip consumption, fab equipment spending is set to continue its growth path into 2022, reaching $100 billion, according to new data from SEMI.
The yearly equipment spending will top the projected $90 billion expected to be spent this year and will mark three consecutive years of growth that began in 2020. This bucks a historical cyclical trend of one or two years of expansion followed by one or two years of declining growth, SEMI said.
The last time the semiconductor industry saw more than two consecutive years of growth was in the mid-1990s.
Foundries consume the bulk
Of the investments in 2022, the bulk of the equipment spending will be in the foundry sector with more than $44 billion in spending, followed by the memory sector of $38 billion.
DRAM and NAND will show large increases in 2022, with spending to jump to $17 billion and $21 billion, respectively. Microprocessor investments will reach about $9 billion, with discrete/power chips at $3 billion, analog at $2 billion and other devices at $2 billion next year.
SEMI said Korea will lead all fab equipment spending with $30 billion, followed by Taiwan at $26 billion and China at nearly $17 billion. Japan will occupy the fourth spending spot with $9 billion in fab equipment. Europe/Mideast will spend about $8 billion in 2022. In the Americas and Southeast Asia, the regions are expected to reach $6 billion and $2 billion, respectively.
The complete research can be found in SEMI’s World Fab Forecast.