Application processors and other device sales for 5G smartphones act as a robust driver.
IC Insights recently released it August Update to the 2020 McClean Report that included the first of a two-part analysis on the global IC foundry market. IC Insights defines a pure-play foundry as a company that does not offer a significant amount of IC products of its own design, but instead focuses on producing ICs for other companies. Examples of pure-play foundries include TSMC, GlobalFoundries, UMC, and SMIC. Integrated device manufacturer (IDM) foundries are defined as those companies that offer foundry services in addition to manufacturing their own ICs. Examples of IDM foundries are Samsung and Intel.
Driven by growing demand for application processors and other telecomm device sales into 5G smartphones, the pure play foundry market is on pace to expand by a strong 19% this year, after declining 1% in 2019 (Figure 1). IC Insights forecasts 200 million 5G smartphone handsets will be shipped in 2020 (although some forecasts expect 250 million units), up from only about 20 million units in 2019.
Figure 1
