Foundries forecast to account for over one-third of semi capex spending this year. New factories and equipment for 7/5/3nm processes highlight growing dependence on foundry business model.
IC Insights is updating its comprehensive forecasts and analyses of the IC industry for its 25th edition of The McClean Report, which will be released in January 2022. Included in the report is a historical review of capital spending and forecasted spending levels for several major IC product categories.
Worldwide semi capex is on track to surge 34% in 2021, its strongest percentage gain since a 41% increase in 2017. The $152.0 billion in outlays this year would represent a new record high annual amount of spending, surpassing the previous high mark of $113.1 billion set just last year. Figure 1 shows a split of semiconductor capital spending by leading product segment for 2019 through 2021.
Figure 1
