By Wu Siya

BEIJING, Nov. 19 (China Economic Net) - Themed “Pooling Sector-wide Resources, Coupling High-tech Industries”, the 21st China International Semiconductor Expo (IC China 2024), is set to be held in Beijing from November 18 to 20.

The 21st China International Semiconductor Expo [Photo/IC China 2024]

The latest data shows that the market size of China’s semiconductor industry has reached USD 179.5 billion in 2023. With the completion of inventory adjustments and the enhancement of self-sufficiency, the market size is expected to grow to USD 238 billion by 2027.

“This year, China-South Korea semiconductor trade is expected to further grow to around USD 68.8 billion. Due to a series of complex factors worldwide, the semiconductor manufacturing supply chain in which all countries participate is becoming increasingly turbulent. If there is no way to meet technological demands or maintain a stable supply chain, the semiconductor industry’s status as a solid foundation for electronic products will be seriously damaged,” said Ki-hyun Ahn, Executive Vice President, Korea Semiconductor Industry Association (KSIA), in his keynote speech.

“Therefore, in order to avoid this situation, countries need to cooperate more with each other. And we will continue to be committed to finding a future in the Chinese market.”

Swee Kiang (SK) Fong, Representative of the Chairman of Malaysia Semiconductor Industry Association (MSIA), proposed more specific policies, emphasizing that in order to deepen the semiconductor cooperation between China and Malaysia, even the entire Southeast Asia, the two countries should establish a joint R&D center, focusing on emerging technologies such as AI chips, low-function design and 5G. Secondly, the production capacity of various countries should be further coupled to create a strong regional supply chain to better deal with risks. In addition, all parties should focus on automotive-grade semiconductor research and development to promote innovation in power management, battery systems and ADAS, so as to meet the requirements of the rapidly growing market.

Global exhibitors seek cooperation opportunities [Photo/IC China 2024]

Cutting-edge semiconductor products exhibited [Photo/IC China 2024]

“The leapfrog development of artificial intelligence has had a significant impact on the global semiconductor industry in recent years. In the second quarter of 2024, the global semiconductor development scale reached a commanding height of USD 160 billion, with the key to such a booming is the high-power chips and related memories around AI,” noted Chen Jie, Director and Co-president, Tsinghua Unigroup Co., Ltd.

Chen pointed out that facing with the current situation where the development of domestic’s semiconductor industry is subject to a series of constraints, China could give full play to the advantages of domestic mobile Internet, that is, vigorously develop end-side AI chips, so as to better play the advantages of China’s semiconductor industry. In the meantime, this industry should never fight alone, but should integrate global resources to more efficiently solve the common problems.

“The global semiconductor market is expected to grow by 15%-20% this year, and the market size will reach USD 600 billion. A huge demand for computing power stimulated by industries such as AI and big data will drive the total output value of global semiconductor industry to exceed USD 1 trillion around 2030,” Ju Long, global vice president of international semiconductor organization SEMI, predicted.