Global chip manufacturing to grow by 6% in 2024
New research by SEMI predicts that the global semiconductor manufacturing industry will increase capacity by 6% in 2024 – and 7% next year.
Trade body SEMI has just launched a report that reflects buoyant demand for chips fuelled by the market for generative artificial intelligence (AI) for data centre training, inference, and leading-edge devices.
The quarterly World Fab Forecast report says semiconductor capacity will rise by 6% in 2024 and post a 7% gain in 2025. That's equal to 33.7 million wafers per month.
SEMI adds that capacity for advanced 5nm nodes and under is expected to grow 13% in 2024. It cites moves by Intel, Samsung, and TSMC to start production of 2nm Gate-All-Around (GAA) chips, which it expects to further boost this capacity by 17% in 2025.
Regionally, SEMI expects most of the growth to come from Chinese chipmakers. They should maintain double-digit capacity growth, registering a 14% increase to 10.1 million wpm in 2025 – nearly a third of the industry’s total – after logging a 15% rise to 8.85 million wpm in 2024. Foundry suppliers such as Huahong Group, Nexchip, Sien Integrated and SMIC and DRAM maker CXMT are investing heavily to grow the region’s semiconductor manufacturing capacity.
Most of the other major chip making regions are expected to see capacity growth of no more than 5% in 2025. Taiwan will post a 4% growth rate, while South Korea will expand capacity by 7% to 5.4 million wpm after surpassing the 5 million wpm mark for the first time in 2024.
Japan, the Americas, Europe & Mideast, and Southeast Asia are expected to grow semiconductor manufacturing capacity by 4.7 million wpm (3% YoY), 3.2 million wpm (5% YoY), 2.7 million wpm (4% YoY), and 1.8 million wpm (4% YoY), respectively.
“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,” said Ajit Manocha, SEMI President and CEO. “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.”
