The global semiconductor industry saw its sales dropped around $47 billion to nearly $527 billion in 2023, according to estimations by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). This was a sharp downturn from the record 2022, but good news is that sales picked up significantly in the second half of the year, showing signs of a strong recovery and positive expectations for the future.

The semiconductor industry supplied chips worth $526.8 billion in 2023, an 8.2% decrease from 2022's all-time high of $574.1 billion. Slow sales of chips in the first half of the year was attributed to inventory corrections by client PC, consumer electronics, and server sectors. Meanwhile, chip sales in Q4 2023 jumped to $146 billion, up 11.6% compared to Q4 2022 and 8.4% higher than in Q3 2023. December also ended on a high note with sales reaching $48.6 billion, a 1.5% increase from November, according to the SIA.

In terms of product categories, logic products — CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, and similar devices that process data — led the charge with $178.5 billion in sales, making it the industry's largest segment that outsells all three others combined. Memory followed with revenue of $92.3 billion, which was a result of declining prices of 3D NAND and DRAM in the first half of the year. In both cases, sales were down year over year.

By contrast, sales of microcontroller units (MCUs) and automotive integrated circuits (ICs) saw impressive of 11.4% and 23.7% year-over-year, respectively, with MCUs revenue reaching $27.9 billion and automotive ICs hitting a new high of $42.2 billion. Strong shipments of MCUs and automotive ICs indicate rapid chip demand growth from makers of cars as well as various smart devices as these industries now use more semiconductors than ever.

"Global semiconductor sales were sluggish early in 2023 but rebounded strongly during the second half of the year, and double-digit market growth is projected for 2024," said John Neuffer, SIA president and CEO. "With chips playing a larger and more important role in countless products the world depends on, the long-term outlook for the semiconductor market is extremely strong."

As far as sales of chips across different parts of the world are concerned, Europe was the only region that saw an increase in sales, growing by 4%. Other regions did not perform this well: sales of chips in the Americas declined by 5.2%, Japan declined by 3.1%, and China experienced the biggest drop at 14%, according to the SIA.

"Advancing government policies that invest in R&D, strengthen the semiconductor workforce, and reduce barriers to trade will help the industry continue to grow and innovate for many years to come," Neuffer said.

Graphs generated by DALL-E/OpenAI based on data from the SIA

Source: The Semiconductor Industry Association

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  • AndrewJacksonZA - Friday, February 9, 2024 - link

    "Graphs generated by DALL-E/OpenAI based on data from the SIA"
    Why?
  • Ryan Smith - Friday, February 9, 2024 - link

    Because it was fast and produced good results with minimal prompting.

    (I was as surprised as anyone by the results when Anton demoed this)
  • Threska - Friday, February 9, 2024 - link

    The future has arisen. *pulls out shovel* Back future back! But really even Microsoft office uses AI.
  • GeoffreyA - Saturday, February 10, 2024 - link

    Well, this is the Stone Age version of the same technology in the brain.
  • PeachNCream - Saturday, February 10, 2024 - link

    AI graph generation is not inherently problematic as long as the source data is reliable and the output is representative. These people are on a shoestring budget in a world where excitement over computer technology has dwindled as the industry has matured and other technologies have disrupted their wider use which impacts the site meaningfully. Even the founder of the site was given better pay as an employee at a large company so that says a fair bit.
  • GeoffreyA - Sunday, February 11, 2024 - link

    Seemingly, Anand was falling under the spell of Apple for a long time before he left. It was evident in his coverage of their stuff. So, small wonder when his idol offered him a job that he took it.
  • PeachNCream - Sunday, February 11, 2024 - link

    Everyone has their bias, but I do agree that it was apparent his interest in Apple was leading publications to align with the company. That happened with Ian as well when he found himself enamored with Killer NICs while never understanding or bothering to learn enough about network packet flow to realize how pointless it was as a product. It happens to everyone, I would imagine, but the loss of Anand and the subsequent passing around of the leftovers that remain are another example of how some businesses are dependent on their founder.
  • GeoffreyA - Monday, February 12, 2024 - link

    I agree we all have biases.

    Much respect to Ryan for carrying the weight. I hope that Anandtech can fight through this bad patch. It can also be an avenue for growth. YouTube perhaps.
  • Shlong - Tuesday, February 13, 2024 - link

    Do it the old-fashion way: Take 10-15 minutes to make the graphs. OR Take 1 minute to type some letters and numbers in ChatGPT and say make a graph.
  • ballsystemlord - Friday, February 9, 2024 - link

    "By contrast, sales of microcontroller units (MCUs) and automotive integrated circuits (ICs) saw impressive of 11.4% and 23.7% year-over-year," ...
    You missed the word "gains". As in "impressive gains".

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