According to SEMI’s World Fab Forecastreport report, global fab equipment spending for front end facilities is expected to rise 10% year-over-year (YOY) in 2022 to a new all-time high of over US$98 billion, marking a third consecutive year of growth.
SEMI pointed out that the fab equipment spending increase in 2022 would follow a 39% jump in 2021 and 17% in 2020. The industry last saw three consecutive years of growth from 2016 to 2018, more than 20 years after logging a three-year run in the mid-1990s.
“The semiconductor equipment industry has enjoyed a period of unprecedented growth with increased spending in six of the past seven years, as chipmakers expand capacity to meet secular demand for a wide range of emerging technologies including artificial intelligence, autonomous machines and quantum computing,” said Ajit Manocha, president and CEO of SEMI. “The capacity buildout extends beyond the robust demand during the pandemic for electronics vital for remote work and learning, telehealth and other applications.”
The report shows that the foundry sector is expected to account for 46% of total spending in 2022, a 13% YOY increase, followed by memory at 37%, a slight dip from 2021. In memory segments, spending for DRAM is forecast to decline while expenditures for 3D NAND will edge higher. Microcontroller (with MPU) spending is expected register a staggering 47% surge in 2022. Power related devices are also projected to show strong growth of 33%.
