Foundry Sales Defy IC Decline

TSMC’s market impact exceeds Intel's

Bill McClean, IC Insights
10/22/2015 11:30 AM EDT

Nearly 38% of worldwide integrated circuit sales to systems manufacturers in 2015 are coming from products fabricated by silicon foundry services compared to 26% in 2010 and about 21% in 2005, based on an analysis by IC Insights in the new 2016 edition of The Foundry Almanac, which is a jointly produced annual report with the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA).

The new report shows total IC foundry sales to fabless semiconductor suppliers, integrated device manufacturers (IDMs), and systems companies reaching a record-high $50.1 billion in 2015, but the revenue growth this year is expected to be about 5% compared to much stronger increases of 14% in 2013 and 13% in 2014. Many major pure-play foundries have cut their outlooks for growth in the second half of 2015 because of economic uncertainty, delays in wafer purchases, and continued reductions of IC inventories by customers. A surge in the value of the U.S. dollar, especially against the Taiwan dollar, has also played a factor in suppressing global foundry growth, which is measured in U.S. dollars.

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