America drives global chip market to “go again” in April

Market news | June 8, 2024

By Peter Clarke

semiconductor chip market

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Global chip market growth ticked up in April led by exceptional growth reported for the Americas region, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association.

The global chip market assessed as a three-month moving average (3MMA) was worth US$46.43 billion, up 15.8 percent from April 2023. On the same basis the Americas chip market, was worth US$12.64 billion, up 32.4 percent and the China and Asia-Pacific regions maintained strong annual growth at 23.4 percent and 11.1 percent, respectively. They achieved market values of US$14.17 billion and US$11.79 billion, respectively.

This suggests that a consumer and AI driven boom could be more than compensating for any sluggishness in automotive, industrial and infrastructure markets (see WSTS predicts 2024 chip market will grow 16 percent).

The European and Japanese chip markets continued to contract at 7.0 and 7.8 percent respectively but the size of these markets is now relatively small and have proportionately less significance to the global chip market.

Three-month average of chip sales by geographic region for April and March 2024. Source: SIA/WSTS.

“The global semiconductor industry posted double-digit sales increases on a year-to-year basis during each month of 2024, and worldwide sales in April increased on a month-to-month basis for the first time this year, indicating positive market momentum as we approach the middle of the year,” said John Neuffer, CEO of the SIA, in a statement. “Additionally, the latest industry forecast projects strong annual growth in 2024, led by sales to the Americas market, which is expected to grow by more than 25 percent this year.”

Monthly data is given by the SIA as a three-month average although the source of the data, WSTS, tracks sales monthly basis. The SIA and other regional semiconductor industry bodies opt to use averaged data because it evens out the actual data that typically shows troughs at the beginnings of quarters and peaks at the ends of quarters.