Despite a slow start to the year for auto chips, that slice of the chip market is still expected to grow 6 percent
The US based global Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) has now released its official statement, which stated that the international sales of semiconductors have reached a total of $526.8 billion in 2023. It is a slump of 8.2 percent as compared to the total of $574.1 billion in 2022. The quarter four of the year recorded total sales of $146.0 billion, which is around 11.6 percent more than the quarter four of 2022.
An escalation in demand of artificial intelligence (AI) and steady growth in automobile chips will help in increasing the sales of international chips in 2024. SIA Chief Executive John Neuffer told Reuters in an interview, "AI is a super strong market - I think if you look across the landscape, there's a lot of positive things to look at. Despite a slow start to the year for auto chips, that slice of the chip market is still expected to grow 6 percent."
A year back, the global demand for smartphones and PCs were not strong and hence, it reduced the market share of Qualcomm and Intel respectively. Overall, they contributed 1.1 percent of the logic chips to $178.5 billion and on the other hand, sales of memory 29 percent to $92.3 billion. The uncontrolled excitement among the global tech firms this year to produce products and offer services, which deploy AI, is the reason behind the augmentation in demand of advanced chips produced by Nvidia. This is also because cloud computing companies are looking forward to set-up more capacities to run such software.
“With chips playing a larger and more important role in countless products the world depends on, the long-term outlook for the semiconductor market is extremely strong. Advancing government policies that invest in R&D, strengthen the semiconductor workforce, and reduce barriers to trade will help the industry continue to grow and innovate for many years to come," added Neuffer.
On a regional basis, Europe was the only regional market that experienced annual growth in 2023, with sales there increasing 4.0%. Annual sales into all other regional markets decreased in 2023: Japan (-3.1%), the Americas (-5.2%), Asia-Pacific/All Other (-10.1%), and China (-14.0%). Sales for the month of December 2023 increased compared to November 2023 in China (4.7%), the Americas (1.8%), and Asia Pacific/All Other (0.3%), but decreased in Japan (-2.4%) and Europe (-3.9%).
