Worldwide silicon wafer shipments increased 5.9% quarter-over-quarter to 3,214 million square inches (MSI) in the third quarter of 2024 and registered 6.8% growth from the 3,010 million square inches recorded during the same quarter last year, the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG) reported in its quarterly analysis of the silicon wafer industry.

"The third quarter wafer shipment results continued the upward trend which started in the second quarter of this year," said Lee Chungwei (李崇偉), Chairman of SEMI SMG and Vice President and Chief Auditor at GlobalWafers. "Inventory levels have declined throughout the supply chain but generally remain high. Demand for advanced wafers used for AI continues to be strong. However, the silicon wafer demand for automotive and industrial uses continues to be muted, while the demand for silicon used for handset and other consumer products has seen some areas of improvement. As a result, 2025 is likely to continue upward trends, but total shipments are not yet expected to return to the peak levels of 2022."

Global shipments of silicon wafers are projected to decline 2% in 2024 to 12,174 million square inches (MSI) with a strong rebound of 10% delayed until 2025 to reach 13,328 MSI as wafer demand continues to recover from the downcycle, SEMI reported today in its annual silicon shipment forecast.

Strong silicon wafer shipment growth is expected to continue through 2027 to meet increasing demand related to AI and advanced processing, driving improved fab utilization rate for global semiconductor production capacity. Moreover, new applications in advanced packaging and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) production, which require additional wafers, are contributing to the rising need for silicon wafers. Such applications include temporary or permanent carrier wafers, interposers, device separation into chiplets, and memory/logic array separation.

According to a recent report from Nikkei, China has claimed the number one spot as the single highest spender on chipmaking tools. As the data from SEMI highlights, China spent a whopping $25 billion on key semiconductor tools in the first half of 2024, more than the US, Taiwan, and South Korea combined. And the train of acceleration for the Chinese semiconductor industry doesn't seem to be slowing down, as the country is expected to spend more than $50 billion for the entire year 2024. However, this equipment is not precisely leading-edge, as Chinese companies are under Western sanctions and are unable to source advanced EUV lithography tools for making sub-7 nm chips.

Most of the spending is allocated to mature node chipmaking facilities. These so-called "second tier" companies are driving the massive expenditures, and they are plentiful. Nikkei reports that there are at least ten firms that operate with mature nodes like 10/12/16 nm nodes. Being the biggest spender, China is also one of the primary revenue sources for many companies. For the US chipmaking tool companies like Applied Materials, Lam Research, and KLA, Chinese purchases accounted for 32%, 39%, and 44% of their latest quarterly revenue, respectively. Tokyo Electron recorded orders to China accounting for 49.9% of its revenues in June, while the Netherlands giant ASML also attributed 49%. Perhaps even more interesting is the expected outlook for 2025, which shows no signs of slowing down. The Chinese semiconductor industry must establish complete self-sufficiency, and massive capital expenditures are expected to continue.

To keep pace with unremitting growth in demand for chips, the global semiconductor manufacturing industry is 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: 8-inch equivalent), SEMI announced today in its latest quarterly World Fab Forecast report.

Leading-edge capacity for 5 nm nodes and under is expected to grow 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 2 nm Gate-All-Around (GAA) chips, boosting total leading-edge capacity growth by 17% in 2025.

SK Hynix has unveiled ambitious High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) roadmaps at SEMICON Korea 2024. Vice President Kim Chun-hwan announced plans to mass produce the cutting-edge HBM3E within the first half of 2024, touting 8-layer stack samples already supplied to clients. This iteration makes major strides towards fulfilling surging data bandwidth demands, offering 1.2 TB/s per stack and 7.2 TB/s in a 6-stack configuration. VP Kim Chun-hwan cites the rapid emergence of generative AI, forecasted for 35% CAGR, as a key driver. He warns that "fierce survival competition" lies ahead across the semiconductor industry amidst rising customer expectations. With limits approaching on conventional process node shrinks, attention is shifting to next-generation memory architectures and materials to unleash performance.

SK Hynix has already initiated HBM4 development for sampling in 2025 and mass production the following year. According to Micron, HBM4 will leverage a wider 2048-bit interface compared to previous HBM generations to increase per-stack theoretical peak memory bandwidth to over 1.5 TB/s. To achieve these high bandwidths while maintaining reasonable power consumption, HBM4 is targeting a data transfer rate of around 6 GT/s. The wider interface and 6 GT/s speeds allow HBM4 to push bandwidth boundaries significantly compared to prior HBM versions, fueling the need for high-performance computing and AI workloads. But power efficiency is carefully balanced by avoiding impractically high transfer rates. Additionally, Samsung is aligned on a similar 2025/2026 timeline. Beyond pushing bandwidth boundaries, custom HBM solutions will become increasingly crucial. Samsung executive Jaejune Kim reveals that over half its HBM volume already comprises specialized products. Further tailoring HBM4 to individual client needs through logic integration presents an opportunity to cement leadership. As AI workloads evolve at breakneck speeds, memory innovation must keep pace. With HBM3E prepping for launch and HBM4 in the plan, SK Hynix and Samsung are gearing up for the challenges ahead.

With sequential IC sales declines beginning to moderate, the global semiconductor industry appears to be nearing the end of a downcycle and is expected to begin to recover in 2024, SEMI, in partnership with TechInsights, reported in the Semiconductor Manufacturing Monitor. In Q3 2023, electronics sales are projected to post healthy quarter-on-quarter growth of 10%, while memory IC sales are expected to log double-digit growth for the first time since the downturn started in Q3 2022. Logic IC sales are predicted to remain stable and improve as demand gradually recovers.

Headwinds will continue for the semiconductor manufacturing sector in the second half of the year, SEMI and TechInsights reported. Drawdowns of high inventory at integrated device manufacturer (IDM) and fabless companies will continue to suppress fab utilization rates to much lower levels than those in the first half of 2023. The weakness is projected to extend declines in capital equipment billings and silicon shipments for the rest of the year despite stable results in the first half of 2023.

Worldwide silicon wafer shipments increased 2.0% quarter-over-quarter to 3,331 million square inches in the second quarter of 2023, down 10.1% from the 3,704 million square inches recorded during the same quarter last year, the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG) reported in its quarterly analysis of the silicon wafer industry.

"The semiconductor industry continues to work through excess inventory in various market segments, necessitating that fabs operate below full capacity," said Anna-Riikka Vuorikari-Antikainen, Chairman of SEMI SMG and Chief Commercial Officer at Okmetic. "As a result, silicon wafer shipments are lagging their 2022 peak. Second-quarter wafer shipments held steady quarter-on-quarter with 300 mm showing quarterly growth among all wafer sizes."

Global semiconductor materials market revenue grew 8.9% to $72.7 billion in 2022, surpassing the previous market high of $66.8 billion set in 2021, SEMI, the global industry association representing the electronics manufacturing and design supply chain, reported today in its Materials Market Data Subscription (MMDS). Wafer fabrication materials and packaging materials revenue in 2022 reached $44.7 billion and $28.0 billion, respectively, increasing 10.5% and 6.3%. The silicon, electronic gases, and photomask segments showed the strongest growth in the wafer fabrication materials market, while the organic substrates segment largely drove packaging materials market growth.

For the 13th consecutive year, Taiwan, at $20.1 billion, was the world's largest consumer of semiconductor materials on the strength of its foundry capacity and advanced packaging base. China continued to register strong year-over-year results, ranking second in 2022, while Korea finished as the third largest consumer of semiconductor materials. Most regions registered high single- or double-digit growth last year.

Three years ago, Intel announced a goal to increase global annual spending with diverse suppliers to $2 billion by 2030. We are proud to announce we reached $2.2 billion in diverse supplier spending in 2022, eight years ahead of schedule. This $2.2 billion represents nearly 15 times the annual total when our supplier diversity program launched in 2015 and double our 2019 results.

Worldwide sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment increased 5% from $102.6 billion in 2021 to an all-time record of $107.6 billion last year, SEMI, the industry association representing the global electronics design and manufacturing supply chain, reported today. The data is now available in the Worldwide Semiconductor Equipment Market Statistics (WWSEMS) Report.

For the third consecutive year, China remained the largest semiconductor equipment market in 2022 despite a 5% slowdown in the pace of investments in the region year over year, accounting for $28.3 billion in billings. Taiwan, the second-largest destination for equipment spending, recorded an increase of 8% to $26.8 billion, marking the fourth straight year of growth for the region. Equipment sales to Korea contracted 14% to $21.5 billion. Annual semiconductor equipment investments in Europe surged 93%, while North America logged a 38% increase. Sales to the Rest of World and Japan increased 34% and 7% year over year, respectively.

Semiconductor manufacturers worldwide are forecast to increase 300 mm fab capacity to an all-time high of 9.6 million wafers per month (wpm) in 2026, SEMI announced today in its 300 mm Fab Outlook to 2026 report. After strong growth in 2021 and 2022, the 300 mm capacity expansion is expected to slow this year due to soft demand for memory and logic devices.

"While the pace of the global 300 mm fab capacity expansion is moderating, the industry remains squarely focused on growing capacity to meet robust secular demand for semiconductors," said Ajit Manocha, SEMI President and CEO. "The foundry, memory and power sectors will be major drivers of the new record capacity increase expected in 2026."

Global fab equipment spending for front-end facilities is expected to decrease 22% year-over-year (YoY) to US$76 billion in 2023 from a record high of US$98 billion in 2022 before rising 21% YoY to US$92 billion in 2024 to reclaim lost ground, SEMI announced today in its latest quarterly World Fab Forecast report. The 2023 decline will stem from weakening chip demand and higher inventory of consumer and mobile devices.

Next year's fab equipment spending recovery will be driven in part by the end of the semiconductor inventory correction in 2023 and strengthening demand for semiconductors in the high-performance computing (HPC) and automotive segments. "This quarter's SEMI World Fab Forecast update offers our first look ahead to 2024, highlighting the steady global expansion of fab capacity to support future semiconductor industry growth driven by the automotive and computing segments and a host of emerging applications," said Ajit Manocha, SEMI president and CEO. "The report points to a healthy 21% uptick in equipment investment next year."

Global sales of total semiconductor manufacturing equipment by original equipment manufacturers are forecast to reach a new high of $108.5 billion in 2022, rising 5.9% from the previous industry record of $102.5 billion in 2021, SEMI announced today in its Year-End Total Semiconductor Equipment Forecast - OEM Perspective at SEMICON Japan 2022. The record high caps three consecutive years of record revenue. The global total semiconductor manufacturing equipment market is expected to contract to $91.2 billion next year before rebounding in 2024 driven by both the front-end and back-end segments.

"Record fab constructions have driven total semiconductor manufacturing equipment sales to cross the $100 billion mark for a second straight year," said Ajit Manocha, SEMI president and CEO. "Emerging applications in multiple markets have set expectations for significant semiconductor industry growth this decade, which will necessitate further investments to expand production capacity."

The worldwide semiconductor industry is projected to invest more than $500 billion in 84 volume chipmaking facilities starting construction from 2021 to 2023, with segments including automotive and high-performance computing fueling the spending increases, SEMI announced today in its latest quarterly World Fab Forecast report. The projected growth in global factory count includes a record high 33 new semiconductor manufacturing facilities starting construction this year and 28 more in 2023.

"The latest SEMI World Fab Forecast update reflects the increasing strategic importance of semiconductors to countries and a wide array of industries worldwide," said Ajit Manocha, SEMI president and CEO. "The report underscores the significant impact of government incentives in expanding production capacity and strengthening supply chains. With the bullish long-term outlook for the industry, rising investments in semiconductor manufacturing are critical to laying the groundwork for secular growth driven by a diverse range of emerging applications."

SEMI, the industry association serving the global electronics manufacturing and design supply chain, today announced that members of the new Semiconductor Climate Consortium (SCC) will discuss key aspects of the group's vision, goals and membership at two sessions during COP27 in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt.

On Nov. 10 from 8:30am to 10:00am at Hotel Steigenberger Alcazar, the panel discussion SCC Collaboration for Solutions on Climate, with opening remarks by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, will feature SCC founding members including ASM, ASMPT, Samsung Electronics and Schneider Electric discussing the importance of collaboration, transparency and reporting across the semiconductor value chain. Dr. Mousumi Bhat, Vice President of Sustainability Programs at SEMI, and Mark Patel, Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company, will also speak at the gathering.