August 23, 2023 /SemiMedia/ -- According to Nikkei Asia, it is expected that the investment in equipment in semiconductor factories will decrease by 16% annually to US$122 billion in 2023, the first decline in four years, and the decline will be the largest in the past 10 years.

According to reports, various semiconductor factories are cautious about investment due to the slowdown in demand in mainland China. In 2023, the top 10 semiconductor factories will reduce their investment in memory chips by 44% annually, and their investment in logic semiconductors for computing will also decrease by 14%.

With the successive introduction of semiconductor stimulus policies by governments of various countries in recent years, the investment of the top 10 semiconductor factories in 2022 reached 146 billion US dollars, a record high.

As of the end of June 2023, the inventory reached 88.9 billion US dollars, an increase of 10% compared with a year ago, and an increase of 70% compared with 2020. Due to severe excess inventory, Micron cut production by 30% and equipment investment by 40%. SK Hynix further expanded production cuts by 5-10% and investment by more than 50%.

SIA said that although global semiconductor sales in 2023 still lagged behind last year's total, revenue rose for the fourth consecutive month in June this year, with a steady month-on-month increase, giving people optimism that the market will continue to rebound in the second half of the year.