Semiconductor output value to surge over next decade, says Etron chair

The semiconductor industry will be rising in value over the next 10 years, and may break through the US$1 trillion plateau during the forecast period, according to Nicky Lu, chairman of Taiwan’s fabless chipmaker Etron Technology.

Eyeing the promising industry growth, Lu urged Taiwan-based high-tech companies to make long-term investments in R&D. Pandemic-driven digital transformation, 5G and AI related applications will be driving semiconductor demand over the next decade, Lu said.

AI device applications, for example, require a huge amount of logic chips and DRAM memory, Lu indicated. The overall semiconductor demand for AI related applications is promising encouraging regional foundries and IDMs to step up their pace of investments, Lu continued.

Specializing in specialty DRAM memory, Etron swung to net profits of NT$54 million (US$1.93 million) in the first quarter of 2021 – its first quarterly earnings in five-and-a-half years. Digitimes