Global chip sales rose 26.2 percent to hit a record in 2021 at $555.9 billion, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) report indicated.
SIA said worldwide semiconductor sales will achieve 8.8 percent growth in 2022 as chip makers continue to build up production capacity to meet demand.
“It’s still really trending very strongly towards increased demand. We’re just not going to get this kind of slingshot effect that we had in the pandemic,” said SIA CEO John Neuffer.
Sales in 2020 grew 6.8 percent over the prior year, while 2021 was the first year since 2018 that the number of chips sold exceeded 1 trillion, he said.
Logic — $154.8 bn
Memory — $153.8 bn
Micro-ICs — $80.2 bn
Analog semiconductor — $74 bn
Automotive ICs — $26.4 bn
Semiconductor manufacturers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), Samsung Electronics, and Intel have announced tens of billions of dollars in investments for new factories in the past year. Neuffer said the digitalization trend ramped up by the pandemic would continue to drive demand higher.
In 2021 1.15 trillion semiconductors were sold, with the biggest growth among auto-grade chips that can withstand heat and other physical challenges, Neuffer said. Sales for that segment rose 34 percent over the prior year at $26.4 billion. Unit sales rose 33 percent, he said.
China remained the largest individual market for semiconductors, with sales totaling $192.5 billion in 2021, an increase of 27.1 percent, the SIA said.
