Chipmakers Are Flashing More Warnings on the Global Economy

Mounting concern over semiconductor demand is sending shudders through North Asia's high-tech exporters, which historically serve as a bellwether for the international economy. From a report: South Korean behemoths Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have signaled plans to dial back investment outlays, while across the East China Sea, the world's biggest contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. indicated a similar expectation. Fading tech demand highlights a darkening picture as Russia's war on Ukraine and rising interest rates damp activity. The following charts look at the chip industry and its implications for the world economy. In recent weeks, major chip manufacturers Micron, Nvidia, Intel and Advanced Micro Devices have warned of weaker export orders. Gartner predicts an abrupt end to one of the industry's biggest boom cycles. The research firm slashed its outlook for revenue growth to just 7.4% in 2022, down from 14% seen three months earlier. Gartner then sees it falling 2.5% in 2023. Memory chips are among the most vulnerable segments in the $500 billion semiconductor market to global economic performance, and Samsung and SK Hyinx' sales of dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, a chip that holds bits of data, are central to Korean trade.

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