2017 was a great year for the semiconductor industry, thanks to booming demand from existing and new markets and supply constraints of key products pushing prices up. Total revenue in 2017 reached $419 billion, and is expected to grow a further 7.5% in 2018 to $451 billion (Gartner).
R&D spending benefited significantly from the increased revenue, with the top 10 semiconductor R&D spenders increasing outlays by 6% in 2017. The push for R&D was driven not only by increased revenues but also by new markets gaining traction, particuarly IoT, AI, and cloud computing(Electronics Weekly). Intel ranked top for R&D spending, accounting for 22% of total worldwide semiconductor R&D spending, while Nvidia and TSMC increased their spending on R&D the most compared to 2016 (23% and 20% increase, respectively) (Electronics Weekly).