I suppose it doesn't prove much, but it's hard for me to square the following, adapted from an article by Joesph Pereira in today's WSJ, with the end-of-cycle scenario for the semi-equips.
Larry
<<IBM plans to invest $5 billion over the next two years to expand semiconductor manufacturing, saying it needs more capacity to meet rising customer demand.
The plan calls for the construction of a $2.5 billion facility in East Fishkill, N.Y. The balance of its investment will be used to upgrade several chip-making facilities in Europe, Japan and the U.S.
The announcement comes at a time of weakness in the general-purpose semiconductor market, as demand has
slackened and excess inventory accumulated.But IBM said that the market segments it has its eye on -- namely high-speed chips designed for big servers and custom-made
ones tailored for specific clients -- are outpacing other parts of the business.
Semiconductor-sales growth "has been at greater than 50% this year, and we can't keep up with the demand of our customers," said John Kelly, senior vice president of IBM's technology group.
Intel Corp., the Santa Clara, Calif., chip-making king, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. have also announced
multibillion-dollar plans to build plants for making high-speed chips. In all, about $36 billion has been earmarked for high-end chip manufacturing this year, according to Gartner Group/Dataquest Corp.>> |
