Global semiconductor capital spending will grow by 0.8% to $65.7bn, a massive drop from last year’s 12.9% growth.
During the year, the overall capital equipment expenditure will increase by 5.6%, a drop from 11.3% forecasted during the third quarter 2014, as the largest spenders adopt conservative investment schemes.
Gartner research vice president Bob Johnson said: "Equipment spending outperformed capital spending in 2014 and will continue to do so in 2015, a situation that will reverse in 2016.
"Total capital spending will grow 0.8 percent in 2015, compared with 8.8 percent in our previous forecast.
"As we get better visibility into individual company spending plans for 2015, it is apparent that caution is a prevailing sentiment, with the exception of memory where manufacturers are adding capacity in response to favorable market conditions."
In 2015, the equipment spending is set to rise by 5.6%, as producers pull in on new fab construction and concentrate rather than increasing new capacity.
However, the equipment growth is a drop from Gartner’s earlier projected 11.3% growth.
During the year foundries will increase their spend by 4.8%, in contrast to an overall 5.3% drop in overall logic spending, further outspending the logic integrated device manufacturers (IDMs).
The report projects that memory suppliers will shift their emphasis for new capacity from NAND to DRAM in 2015 exploit profitable market conditions, while importance on spending will revert to NAND in next year and beyond as DRAM market conditions get worse.
