According to data released by the Semiconductor Industry International (SEMI), global semiconductor equipment sales are expected to reach a record $10.76 billion in 2022, up 5 percent year-over-year from $10.26 billion in 2021.

By region, mainland China remains the largest semiconductor equipment market for the third consecutive year, with sales of $28.3 billion, despite a 5 percent year-over-year slowdown in the pace of investment in 2022; Taiwan is the second largest equipment spending destination, up 8 percent to $26.8 billion; South Korea's equipment sales shrank 14 percent to $21.5 billion; Europe's annual semiconductor equipment investment surged 93 percent, while North America grew 38 percent. Sales in the rest of the world and Japan grew 34 percent and 7 percent year-over-year, respectively.

EMI said that the semiconductor industry is mainly driven by increased production in response to long-term growth and innovation in the high-performance computing and automotive markets. In addition, sales of wafer processing equipment increased 8% last year, other front-end equipment sales increased 11%, packaging equipment decreased 19%, and test equipment decreased 4%.

Ajit Manocha, president and CEO of SEMI, said, "The record sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment in 2022 stem from the industry's ongoing efforts to increase fab capacity to support long-term growth and innovation in key end markets such as high-performance computing and automotive. In addition, these results reflect the investment and determination of regions to avoid future semiconductor supply chains constrained by the epidemic."