The global chip market reached its highest-ever sales for a year in 2024, topping $600 billion for the first time. Meanwhile, the US chip industry is eagerly following President Trump’s nomination of Howard Lutnick for Commerce secretary, expected to reach a vote in the US Senate next week.
Global semiconductor sales increased by 19% in 2024 compared to a year earlier, reaching $627 billion, while sales in the Americas were up by 45%.
Double digit growth of 11% is also expected to for 2025, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association, which relies on sales figures tabulated by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics organization.
The Americas region led the globe in 2024 sales increases at 44.8%, while China was up by 18% year-over-year and Asia Pacific was up 12.5%. Europe declined in 2024 by 8% and Japan declined slightly, by 0.4%.
SIA said America is expected to triple domestic chip manufacturing by 2032. “To Keep America on top in chip technology, leaders in Washington should advance policies that promote semiconductor production and innovation, strengthen the high-tech workforce and retore US trade leadership,” said SIA President John Neuffer in a statement.
The SIA has been a strong backer of the US CHIPS and Science Act, which the Biden Administration used in 2024 to distribute billions of dollars in grants to bolster domestic chip manufacturing for Intel and Micron, among others, in the US, but also to support Samsung and TSMC as they build plants in the US.
SIA revealed that logic products like Nvidia’s GPUs and accelerators from other companies made up the largest product category by sales in 2024, reaching $212.6 billion of the $627 billion. Memory products like those produced by Micron were second in sales and increased 79% in 2024 to reach $165 billion. DRAM, a memory subset, recorded an 82% increase, the largest percentage growth of any category. However, a large market segment of mature nodes made up of analog chips and MCUs and sensors saw a 7% decline in 2024.
Many analysts covering semiconductor sales have long predicted the chip sector will reach $1 trillion in sales by 2030. If growth continues each year for 10%, global sales could top $1 trillion by the start of 2030.
The semiconductor industry is following closely the US Senate consideration of Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and President Trump’s nominee for Commerce Secretary. The Senate Commerce Committee voted 16-12 on Wednesday to advance the nominee to the full Senate, which is expected to vote next week. All Democrats opposed the nomination except for Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa.
After President Trump last year criticized the CHIPS Act, calling it “so bad,” Sen. Ed Markay, D-Mass., asked Lutnick to commit to honoring CHIPS Act grant contracts already finalized to which Lutnick answered, “I would have to read them and analyze them and understand them to commit to that.”
At another point in the hearing before the committee on Jan. 30, Lutnick called the CHIPS and Science Act an “excellent downpayment” on US semiconductor manufacturing. He added it needed to be reviewed to get the “benefit of the bargain…that we get the money out appropriately, correctly, and we build in America.”
Dan Rosso, vice president of communications at SIA, said there is bipartisan support for a strong semiconductor industry in the US to reinforce America’s economy, national security and global competitiveness.
“The CHIPS Act was successfully launched during the first Trump administration and has since sparked nearly a half a trillion dollars in private investments in the U.S. that will create and support hundreds of thousands of American jobs,” Rosso said. “We look forward to working with Mr. Lutnick to advance American leadership in semiconductor technology and to promote our country’s economic and national security.”