Foundry logic investment seems to be particularly large
Lam Research, one of the world’s top three semiconductor equipment companies, predicts that next year’s semiconductor facility investment will be a’highest level’.
Tim Archer, CEO of Lam Research, said in a conference call held immediately after the 4Q results announcement on the 28th (local time), “This year, the global wafer fab facility (WEF) investment amounted to 60~70 billion dollars It is expected to grow significantly.” It is expected to increase significantly from last year’s estimate of 50 billion dollars (about 56 trillion won).
“There are a lot of complementary investments for the production of NAND flashes with a high number of stacks,” said Archer CEO. “In particular, investments in foundries and logic fabs will increase significantly.”
An industry insider said, “The foundry companies such as TSMC have already announced that they are making a record-breaking facility investment this year.” It’s moving,” he said.
The International Semiconductor Equipment and Materials Association (SEMI) predicted that this year’s semiconductor manufacturing equipment market will be $ 72.1 billion (about 80 trillion won). This is expected to increase by nearly 5% compared to the record high of 68.8 billion dollars last year (about 77 trillion won).
On this day, Lam Research introduced Sense.i and Vantex products, saying that it can provide advanced etching equipment solutions for 3D processing. SenseI is an etching platform for memory that Lam Research launched last year. As the occupied space is small, it is advantageous when building a new factory or switching technology between nodes, Archer explained. Vantex is a chamber mounted on this platform. It can be used in both DRAM and NAND flash processes. “Sensei and Vantex collect a lot of data per wafer, provide meaningful information, and provide a high level of productivity,” said Archer’s CEO. “A large amount of reorders were received this year.”
On that day, Lam Research announced that it recorded sales of 3.46 billion dollars in the fourth quarter. This is an increase of 9% from the previous quarter and 34.1% from the same period last year. Non-GAAP earnings per share, excluding one-off expenses, were $6.03, exceeding the market estimate of $0.18.
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