Forecasters Foresee a $600B Chip Industry

By George Leopold, EETimes (January 21, 2022)

This just in: Semiconductors have been elevated to the status of food, power and transportation, according to a growing number of chip industry forecasts that at last deem chips to be a “essential” industry.

This publication recognized that fact at its founding 50 years ago. A half-century later, an indigenous industry that up and left for Asia beginning in the 1990s is gradually returning to its roots. Who knew it would take a pandemic to make us realize the profound miscalculation U.S. chipmakers made in ceding dominance in semiconductor manufacturing?

This year, according to market forecasters, manufacturers shifting operations back to the U.S. are scrambling to meet demand driven by growing electronic content in vehicles and the networking of things. At the high end of this year’s chip forecasts, for example, professional services firm Deloitte predicts the global chip industry will grow 10 percent this year, with sales for the first time surpassing $600 billion.

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