Sales for semiconductors grew by 6.5% last year thanks to a strong final quarter in 2020. The semiconductor market recovered by Q4 2020 after suffering a decline throughout the year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The global chipset sales generated total revenue of $439 billion throughout the year, out of which 47% came from the US market. This means that $208 billion worth of chips were sold by American chipmakers. As per information from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), this was a 19.8% increase compared to 2019.
According to SIA, the strong semiconductor sales in the final quarter were driven by high demand for memory chipsets used in data centers. The surging rise in demand for cloud computing led by an increasing amount of online education and remote working also contributed to this increase. Major companies including Microsoft, Amazon, and Google reported a large increase in demand for cloud computing services.
Although American companies made up almost half of the total chip sales, the companies only represented about 12% of the manufacturing capacity in 2020. This is because most American companies outsource their chip production to Asian countries.
However, looking forward, John Neuffer, president and chief executive of the industry group predicts that:
Over the next 10 years, semiconductor manufacturing is going to grow 56 percent. We want to make sure we’re getting a bigger piece of the manufacturing pie.
