2019 to be third year of greater than $25.0B in spending for flash, topping both DRAM, foundry.
IC Insights is in the process of completing its forecast and analysis of the IC industry and will present its new findings in The McClean Report 2019, which will be published later this month. Among the semiconductor industry data included in the new 400+ page report is an in-depth analysis of semiconductor capital spending.
The semiconductor industry is expected to allocate the largest portion of its capex spending for flash memory again in 2019, marking the third consecutive year that flash has led all other segments in spending (Figure 1). Flash memory trailed the foundry segment in capex in 2016, but took an extra-large jump in 2017, growing 92% to $27.6 billion and increased another 16% to $31.9 billion in 2018 as manufacturers expanded and upgraded their production lines for 3D NAND to meet growing demand. With much of the expansion now completed or expected to be wrapped up in 2019, flash capex is forecast to decline 18% this year to $26.0 billion, which still is a very healthy spending level.
Figure 1
