Foundry's 31% Growth in 2021 Outpaced Overall Chip Industry

By Alan Patterson, EETimes (May 20, 2022)

The 31% increase in chip foundry revenue to $100.2 billion led growth in the overall semiconductor industry last year, according to market research firm Gartner. The increase in foundry sales was primarily due to an 11.5% rise in average selling prices for silicon wafers and an 18% jump in unit shipments.

The overall semiconductor industry saw revenues increase by 26% to $595 billion in 2021, according to the Gartner report. Foundries, which are mainly based in Taiwan and South Korea, benefitted from strong demand from fabless chip designers such as AMD and MediaTek.

During 2021, the overall foundry utilization rate exceeded 95%, while demand was especially tight for eight–inch wafers made for power management ICs (PMICs), display drivers, and fingerprint sensors, the report said. The shortages of eight–inch wafers are likely to persist “for a long time” because fab expansions are constrained by a lack of production tools for the smaller wafer size, according to Gartner.

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