Thanks to the rapid growth of the artificial intelligence (AI) industry, global investment in semiconductor manufacturing equipment reached a record high of $117.1 billion (approximately 160.5 trillion won) last year. Of this, China's investment share exceeded 40%.
According to the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) on the 27th, the global investment in semiconductor manufacturing equipment last year was $117.1 billion, a 10% increase from the previous year. This is the highest figure recorded since tracking began.
SEMI analyzed that the expansion of investments in production facilities for advanced and mature logic processes, advanced packaging, and high bandwidth memory (HBM) along with China's large-scale investments drove the growth.
Last year, in the semiconductor front-end institutional sector equipment market, wafer processing equipment increased by 9%, and other equipment rose by 5%, showing significant growth. During the same period, the back-end institutional sector ended a two-year decline and showed strong recovery.
As demand for AI and HBM grew and technological complexity increased, investments in packaging equipment rose by 25% compared to the previous year, and the TES institutional sector also increased by 20%.
Regionally, the 'rise of China' was notable. China, South Korea, and Taiwan accounted for 74% of semiconductor equipment investment, with China investing more than the combined amounts of South Korea and Taiwan. China solidified its position as the world's largest semiconductor equipment market with an aggressive expansion of production capacity and government policies to foster the semiconductor industry, recording an investment of $49.6 billion (approximately 68 trillion won), a 35% increase from the previous year. China's share of total investment was 42.3%.
South Korea recorded $20.5 billion (approximately 28 trillion won, with a share of 17.5%), a 3% increase, due to stabilization in the memory market and rising demand for HBM, while Taiwan recorded $16.6 billion (approximately 23 trillion won, with a share of 14.2%), a 16% decrease, due to reduced demand for new facilities.
North America reached an investment of $13.7 billion (approximately 19 trillion won), a 14% increase from the previous year, due to enhanced domestic manufacturing capabilities and investments in advanced technology nodes. In Europe, due to economic uncertainty and a slowdown in demand for automotive and industrial applications, equipment investment plummeted by 25% to $4.9 billion (approximately 7 trillion won). Japan also recorded a decrease of 1%, reaching $7.8 billion (approximately 11 trillion won) due to slow growth in key end markets.