(Yicai Global) March 17 -- China is one of the world’s most important markets, so Texas Instruments will continue to hike its capacity and investment in the country, according to the vice president of the inventor of integrated circuits.

Texas Instruments sticks to a long-term strategy and will not adjust it due to short-term market fluctuations but continue to hike its capacity and investment in China, Jiang Han, who is also the president of the company’s China business, told Yicai Global yesterday during a product release press conference.

The global semiconductor industry has been in a downward trend since the second half of last year. But although sales fell in the last six months of 2022, annual sales rose 3.2 percent to USD573.5 million from the previous year, according to data from the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics.

“No matter what the trend is, we are confident of achieving faster growth in China than the rest of the world,” Jiang said.

Semiconductor sales in China dropped 6.3 percent last year from 2021, but the country remained the world’s largest chip consumer, with a 31.6 percent share of the global market.

While many large chipmakers cut their planned expenditures and laid off employees, Texas Instruments did not follow and has no plan to do so, Jiang noted. “Texas Instruments will recruit more workers in China this year than in 2022,” he added.

This year, the company’s second assembling and testing factory in Chengdu, which started construction in 2018, is expected to begin production. It will also double its capacity at the plant. 

The global semiconductor market will grow to USD1 trillion by 2030, according to predictions from international semiconductor industry association Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International and other institutions.

Texas Instruments aims to achieve USD45 billion in operating revenue globally in 2030, doubling last year’s figure.

Semicon China 2023, the world’s largest semiconductor event, attracted a crowd of exhibitors, recovering to the pre-pandemic level, Ju Long, the global VP and China president of organizer Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International, told Yicai Global on March 14.

Semicon China is an international semiconductor exhibition held by global industry organization SEMI in the Shanghai New International Expo Center together with FPD China, an industry exposition focusing on display and touch screen manufacturing chain, gathering worldwide equipment, materials, and the latest technology.

This year, the two events will be held from June 29 to July 1. In 2022, they were canceled due to Covid.

Editors: Shi Yi, Futura Costaglione