Massive 18.6% drop of revenue for semiconductor foundries in 1Q 2023

Leading semiconductor market researcher TrendForce has reported a big quarter over quarter revenue drop of 18.6% for top 10 semiconductor foundries in the world. This decline amounts to approximately US$27.3 billion. The major causes for this fall includes sustained weak end-market demand and the compounded effects of the off-peak season, as per TrendForce. TrendForce also reported the latest ranking of foundries in the first quarter of 2023. GlobalFoundries overtook UMC to take the third position, and Tower Semiconductor lead over PSMC and VIS to take the seventh rank. The other findings reported by TrendForce includes as below: The revenue decline in Q1 was primarily influenced by declining capacity utilization rates and shipment volume across the top 10 foundries. For instance, TSMC generated US$16.74 billion in revenue—marking a 16.2% QoQ drop in revenue. Weakened demand for mainstream applications such as laptops and smartphones led to a significant decline in the utilization rates and revenue of the 7/6 nm and 5/4 nm processes, falling over 20% and 17%, respectively. While the second quarter may see temporary relief coming from rush orders, the persistently low capacity utilization rate indicates that revenue is likely to continue declining, albeit at a slower pace compared to Q1. Samsung witnessed a decline in both 8-inch and 12-inch wafer capacity utiliza...