Let’s start 2022 by quickly recapping some of the major events and trends of 2021, which was another year of the so-called ‘silicon renaissance’ era – and, unfortunately, another year of Covid-19 pandemic.
Record numbers, chip shortage, new fabs, geopolitical tensions
As we all know, the semiconductor industry and its ecosystem thrived in 2021, due to strong demand from multiple end markets. In fact, the demand exceeded the global fab capacity, generating a severe chip shortage that especially hit carmakers. According to market research firm Omdia, in the third quarter of 2021 the semiconductor market surpassed $150 billion. Record numbers were also reported by the Electronic System Design Alliance for the EDA industry, and by Semi for the equipment and material market. As for this latter area, 2021 was an exciting year because of several announcements related to the planned construction of new fabs, such as Samsung’s plant in Texas or Intel’s factories in Arizona. Unfortunately, geopolitical tensions also increased in 2021, with China vowing to pursue reunification with Taiwan.