San Jose, California–Oct. 11, 2000–The worldwide semiconductor industry should see revenue eclipse $231.6 billion in 2000, an increase of 37% over 1999 revenue, according to Dataquest Inc. analysts, a unit of Gartner Group, Inc.

“It has taken the industry 5 years to return to the strong revenue growth achieved in 1995, when the industry grew almost 38%,” says Mary Olsson, principal analyst for Gartner Dataquest’s worldwide semiconductor group. “Yet, despite the growth resemblance between 1995 and 2000, we do not believe 2001 will be a year of changing business conditions as it was in 1996. Barring any major economic downturn or earth-shaking disaster, the industry in 2002 is forecast to reach low double-digit growth, with a moderate but cyclical downturn in the forecast for 2003. A return to moderate growth is expected in 2004.”

The memory segment is showing the strongest growth, Dataquest analysts report, and is on pace to increase by more than 60%. DRAM revenue is forecast to increase to $37 billion in 2000–a 58% increase from 1999. With continued healthy growth in the memory sector, the worldwide semiconductor market is projected to top $339.5 billion in 2004.