2018 was another banner year for the global semiconductor market, with 4th quarter Year-over-Year growth of nearly 23%. However, analysts are not so bullish for 2019, forecasting much more modest +4.4% growth on average.
Much of this is due to the softening memory market. Memory was the key driver for the spectacular semiconductor revenue growth in 2017 and early 2018. But, as more capacity came online, memory prices peaked in the first quarter of 2018, with the current forecast for memory ASP (average selling price) for the 4th quarter of 2018 slightly above Q4 2017.
Fortunately, emerging trends in semiconductor design offer promising areas of growth in 2019. Specifically, the continuing ramp of next-generation technologies, fueled by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning (ML).
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