Top 5 Wafer Fab Equipment Manufacturers Fell 9% in Q1 2024

Recently, according to the latest data report from Counterpoint research, in the first quarter of 2024, the revenue of the world's top five wafer fab equipment (WFE) manufacturers fell 9% year-on-year due to delayed customer investment in cutting-edge semiconductors, but strong DRAM demand offset this impact to a certain extent. Among the top five manufacturers, ASML and Tokyo Electron's revenue fell 21% and 14% year-on-year, respectively. Compared with 2023, the revenue of Applied Materials, Lam Research and KLA all fell by single digits.

However, compared with the previous quarter, ASML's revenue declined by 26% and KLA's revenue declined by 5%, mainly due to customers adjusting advanced node production capacity; Applied Materials and Lam Research's revenue remained the same, while Tokyo Electron benefited from strong demand for DRAM and NAND, with revenue growth of 18%.

In the first quarter of 2024, the revenue of the top five WFE manufacturers in China increased by 116% year-on-year, mainly due to increased DRAM shipments. Strong demand for mid-range key and mature nodes in application areas such as the Internet of Things, automobiles and 5G may continue until the end of this year.

Memory revenues of the top five WFE manufacturers grew 33% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2024, driven by increased NAND spending and strong DRAM demand driven by the growing adoption of artificial intelligence. Foundry segment revenues fell 29% year-over-year due to delayed customer investments in cutting-edge semiconductors.

Counterpoint research expects full-year revenues in 2024 to grow 4% from 2023, while year-over-year revenue growth in 2025 is expected to be double-digit, driven by increased capacity in leading-edge logic and foundry plants, applications such as generative AI and high-performance computing (HPC), and a recovery in demand for end chips.