Semiconductor industry

The semiconductor industry is the aggregate of companies engaged in the design and fabrication of semiconductors and semiconductor devices, such as transistors and integrated circuits. Its roots can be traced to the invention of the transistor by Shockley, Brattain, and Bardeen at Bell Labs in 1948.^[1][2] Bell Labs licensed the technology for $25,000,^[3] and soon many companies, including Motorola (1952),^[4] Schockley Semiconductor (1955), Sylvania, Centralab, Fairchild Semiconductor and Texas Instruments were making transistors. In 1958 Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce of Fairchild independently invented the Integrated Circuit, a method of producing multiple transistors on a single "chip" of Semiconductor material. This kicked off a number of rapid advances in fabrication technology leading to the exponential growth in semiconductor device production, known as Moore's law that has persisted over the past six or so decades. The industry's annual semiconductor sales revenue has since grown to over $481 billion, as of 2018.^[5]

In 2010, the semiconductor industry had the highest intensity of Research & Development in the EU and ranked second after Biotechnology in the EU, United States and Japan combined.^[6]

The semiconductor industry is in turn the driving force behind the wider electronics industry,^[7] with annual power electronics sales of £135 billion ($216 billion) as of 2011,^[8] annual consumer electronics sales expected to reach $2.9 trillion by 2020,^[9] tech industry sales expected to reach $5 trillion in 2019,^[10] and e-commerce with over $29 trillion in 2017.^[11] In 2019, 32.4% of the semiconductor market segment was for networks and communications devices.^[12]

In 2021, the sales of semiconductors reached a record $555.9 billion, up 26.2 percent, with sales in China reaching $192.5 billion, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association. A record 1.15 trillion semiconductor units were shipped in the calendar year.^[13] The semiconductor industry is projected to reach $726.73 billion by 2027.^[14]