In forty years, an industry quietly became the world's foundation.
In 1985 the whole world spent about twenty-one billion US dollars on semiconductors — less than one mid-sized carmaker's revenue. In 2024 it spent about six hundred and twenty-eight billion. The line between those numbers is not a smooth curve: it climbs, crashes, and climbs again, roughly every four years. Each climb was pulled upward by something people suddenly wanted — a computer on a desk, a browser, a phone in a pocket, a data centre, and now a machine that answers questions.
- 1995: the first internet boom
Sales tripled in five years, then fell hard. Every era on this chart ends in an overshoot.
- 2018 onward
Data centres, and then AI accelerators, became the biggest single pull on the leading edge.
- The crash of 2001
Down about a third in one year. Fabs cost billions and take years, so supply always arrives slightly wrong.
- 11995: the first internet boom — Sales tripled in five years, then fell hard. Every era on this chart ends in an overshoot.
- 22018 onward — Data centres, and then AI accelerators, became the biggest single pull on the leading edge.
- 3The crash of 2001 — Down about a third in one year. Fabs cost billions and take years, so supply always arrives slightly wrong.
From roughly 21 billion US dollars to roughly 628 billion. Figures rounded from WSTS annual industry totals.
- 1947the transistor
- 1958the integrated circuit
- 1971the microprocessor
- 1987the pure-play foundry
- 2019EUV in volume production
Five moments that reset what a chip could be.
Semiconductors stopped being an industry and became a utility — and utilities are noticed only when they fail.