Mubarak (Khaldoon Al Mubarak), chief executive of Mubadala, Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund, said the global semiconductor industry is expected to grow exponentially over the next decade and chipmakers will play a "key" role in the global economy.
"it took 50 years for the semiconductor industry to grow to $500 billion," he said. It may take eight to 10 years to double. After that, that number could double within four to five years. "
Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, manages about $240 billion in assets. It is also a major shareholder in GE Core, the world's third-largest chipmaker. Gexin recently raised nearly $2.6 billion in an initial public offering, one of the largest IPO exchanges in the United States this year.
"so, we use it as a very important data point. Plus another very relevant data point. There are only five [semiconductor] manufacturing companies in the world, and I mean global manufacturers, four of which are in Asia, "he added." I think as one of them, Grid Core has unique differentiation platforms in the United States, Europe and Asia. "
The five global semiconductor manufacturers he refers to are TSMC, South Korea's Samsung, GE Core, Taiwan Union Power and SMIC. The manufacturing scale of grid core ranks third among them, second only to TSMC and Samsung.
Mr Mubarak's comments come as global demand for chips remains in short supply, and chip shortages have hampered production in industries ranging from cars to household appliances, personal computers and smartphones. Some analysts and investors even expect the chip supply shortage to last at least until 2023, but others are more optimistic.
In its IPO document, GE Core acknowledged that the semiconductor industry would need to "significantly increase investment to keep up with demand", although the company expects the imbalance between supply and demand to improve in the medium term.
