Worldwide semiconductor capital equipment spending has registered a drastic increase of 131% to reach $38.4bn in 2010, compared to $16.6bn in 2009, according to a report from IT research and advisory firm Gartner.
However, the research firm warned that equipment vendors should prepare for flat growth heading into 2011 with worldwide semiconductor capital equipment spending forecast to decrease by 1% in 2011.
Gartner said that two major trends will shape capital spending going forward and the first of these trends is the emergence of NAND Flash as the leading memory segment in terms of capital spending.
NAND demand, fuelled by the phenomenal success of media tablets, will continue strongly for the foreseeable future, and require continued high levels of investment to meet surging demand.
The second trend is the strength in foundry spending, driven by competition between TSMC, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, and Samsung at the leading edge, and by the continued move to an asset lite strategy by the majority of the world’s integrated device manufacturers (IDMs).
According to the report, the overall worldwide wafer fab equipment (WFE) spending increased 133% in 2010, but is expected to decrease by 3.4% in 2011.
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