Arm has officially started the process that will lead to its IPO on Nasdaq. As stated in a press release, the size and price range for the proposed offering have yet to be determined. Let’s now move to the rest of our weekly news roundup.
Market numbers: semiconductors 1Q2023, EDA 4Q2022
The chip market is slowing down. According to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), worldwide sales of semiconductors totaled $119.5 billion during the first quarter of 2023, a decrease of 8.7% compared to the fourth quarter of 2022 and 21.3% less than the first quarter of 2022. Sales for the month of March 2023, however, increased 0.3% compared to February 2023. The EDA market, in contrast, is doing well. As recently announced by the ESD Alliance, Electronic System Design industry revenue increased 11.3% from $3,468.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2021 to $3,858.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Smartphone chipmakers seeking diversification
In terms of chip demand, one of the market segments that are suffering is smartphones, and this is having an impact on the leading smartphone chip suppliers. Qualcomm’s shares reportedly sank 7%, over the past few days, after the company signalled it would take longer for the smartphone market to rebound from a post-pandemic slump. Qualcomm, however, is diversifying towards automotive and IoT application, and its automotive revenue grew 20% from Q2 2022 to Q2 2023. A similar diversification strategy is being pursued by MediaTek: “We are definitely moving our resources very, very rapidly toward the automotive and computing area because those areas will provide our growth in the next three to five years in the future,” said MediaTek’s CEO Rick Tsai during the 1Q23 earnings call.
