Around 14 billion connected devices by 2022. Three billion smartphones and tablets by 2017. 75% of the world’s population with access to the Internet by 2015. So says the German company Robert Bosch. And Goldman Sachs says that the Internet of Things (IoT) has the «potential to connect» as many as 28 billion «things» to the Internet by 2020.

That’s going to require a heap of chips! While researchers explore the likes of grapheme and new materials such as a combination of an organic compound called HITP and nickel with which to make flat semiconductors, the Semiconductor Industry Association recently announced that, in July, worldwide sales of semiconductors reached USD 28.1 billion the industry’s highest-ever monthly sales total.

Semiconductors – Global Billings: 3-Month Moving Average (bn USD)


Source: Semiconductor Industry Association, Global Sales Report 1976 - July 2014


About the Author:
Thomas Butcher is an independent writer, researcher and consultant focusing on strategic materials, in particular metals. With 35 years of experience in the financial world, he has lectured and spoken at conferences around the world. Amongst other things, he currently writes a Letter from North America for the Minor Metals Trade Association's bi-monthly publication The Crucible, and was lead author of the chapter on gallium (used in semiconductors) in the British Geological Survey's recently published Critical Metals Handbook.

The article above is an opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of MV Index Solutions or its affiliates.