Semiconductor Revenue to Rise at 4.93% CAGR Through 2026: IDC

Global semiconductor revenue is expected to reach $661 billion in 2022, a 13.7% year-over-year increase from strong 2021 results, reported IDC Wednesday. The leading growth applications in 2021 were 5G smartphones, game consoles, wireless access points, data centers and wearables, and IDC expects those to continue growing in 2022 “but more moderately as a whole as consumer-facing markets begin to see a slowdown” by Q4, it said. Semiconductor supply constraints had the most impact on end markets served by mature process nodes, with manufacturers “slowing down production lines or slowing the introduction of new products and features” to cope with the shortages. IDC expects front-end manufacturing to meet demand by Q3, but back-end manufacturing and the materials supply chain are “extending lead times and extending shortages until the end of the year and into the first part of 2023,” it said. For 2022, IDC sees “continued resilience” in semiconductor sales worldwide, but challenges that will create headwinds for the global economy include inflation and the fiscal policies to address it, plus the COVID-19 shutdowns in China and the impact of the Ukraine-Russia war, it said. With Shanghai beginning to relax restrictions and open at the end of June, coupled with stimulus policies to restart the economies in cities under lockdown, the Chinese economy could “moderately recover” in 2022's second half, it said. IDC forecasts that global semiconductor industry revenue will rise by a 4.93% compound annual growth rate through 2026.