IC Insights: global semiconductor capital expenditure will reach US $185.5 billion this year, up 24% from the same period last year.

According to the latest data released by IC Insights, a well-known semiconductor analyst, it shows that the three years from 2020 to 2022 will be the first triennium for capital expenditure to achieve double-digit growth since 1993-1995.

IC Insights adjusts its global semiconductor capital expenditure forecast for 2022 and now shows that it will grow 21% this year to $185.5 billion, as shown in the following figure:

This is down from the forecast of $190.4 billion and an increase of 24% at the beginning of this year. Despite the downgrade, the revised capital expenditure forecast still represents a new high level of spending.

In the first half of this year, the utilization rate of many IDM plants was still well above 90%, and the utilization rate of many pure generation factories was 100%, as the economic recovery during the outbreak kept orders strong.

Combined capital expenditure on semiconductors is now expected to reach $338.6 billion in 2021 and 2022. IDM and foundry are investing heavily in production expansion to manufacture logic and storage equipment using leading process technologies. However, strong demand and persistent shortages of many other important chips, such as power semiconductors, analog IC and various MCU, have led suppliers to increase their manufacturing capacity.

While all this is positive, soaring inflation and a rapid slowdown in the global economy have led semiconductor manufacturers to re-evaluate their aggressive expansion plans in the middle of the year. Several (but not all) suppliers, especially many leading DRAM and flash memory manufacturers, have announced cuts in this year's capital expenditure budgets. More suppliers point out that if capacity demand is assessed based on three years of strong spending and slowing economic growth, capital spending is expected to be cut in 2023.