Over 100 new semiconductor manufacturing projects added globally in 2023

Source: Xinzhixun

    In recent years, with the increasing attention paid by major countries and regions around the world such as China, the United States, Europe, and Japan to the semiconductor manufacturing industry, it has driven an investment boom in the global semiconductor manufacturing industry. According to SemiEngineering‘s statistics, the global semiconductor manufacturing related fields (including wafer manufacturing, packaging, testing, equipment and materials, etc.) attracted a large amount of funds in 2023, with over 100 investments. Looking ahead, as emerging technologies attract consumer and market interest, artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, and data centers will also benefit from these investments.

    Although governments around the world are seeking to establish local advantages, many local enterprises are still continuing to invest overseas.

    According to SEMI‘s global wafer fab forecast for the third quarter of 2023, it is expected that 94 new 200mm and 300mm wafer fabs will be launched between 2022 and 2026, of which 78 have already begun operation, are either adding equipment or under construction. 63 of them are located in Asia, and 30 of them are located in Chinese Mainland; 18 located in the United States; Thirteen of them are located in Europe and the Middle East.

    "Whether in the United States or other countries, everyone fully recognizes that this is a global industry and we are interdependent with multiple regions," Ajit Manocha said. "We need to collaborate."

    In addition to the challenge of attempting to establish an independent system, Ajit Manocha also warned of the need to maintain international partnerships. We need to establish clear policies so that we can work together with other regions. We don‘t need to concentrate everything in one country, we do need to ensure that there is enough redundancy in the system so that if unfortunate events such as war occur, we won‘t be hostages to such situations. Whether it‘s fires, floods, or blizzards in Texas, wafer fabs face various risks. "The frequency of these disasters has increased, so we need multiple centers in the semiconductor industry, not just the few centers we have today," he said. "That‘s why we welcome India as a new hub, but there is still a long way to go."

    In 2023, India and Malaysia attracted nearly a dozen semiconductor investments. "From the perspective of research and development, there are attractive reasons to build in both regions," said David Henhall, Vice President of Business Development and Government Relations at semiconductor research company SRC. "Many design companies are building centers there because there are a large number of undergraduate and graduate students, and the economic development is also good. The cultivation of professional talents is a huge problem, so we have been working with India to meet some of these needs. Some companies and the Indian government are seeing semiconductors as a way to help them develop their economy."