Worldwide semiconductor revenues are forecast to reach US$411.1 billion in 2017, an increase of 19.7% from 2016, according to Gartner. This represents the strongest growth since the 2010 recovery from the financial crisis when revenue increased by 31.8%.

Gartner previously predicted that worldwide semiconductor revenues would increase 16.8% to US$401.4 billion in 2017. The prediction was already revised upward from Gartner's growth estimates of 12.3% given in April and 7.2% in January.

"Memory continues to lead the semiconductor market higher and is expected to increase 57% in 2017 as supply and demand dynamics increase prices. A shortage of memory, and in particular DRAM, is driving semiconductor revenue higher," said Jon Erensen, research director at Gartner. "Strength is spreading to other semiconductor categories as well with nonoptical sensors, analog, discretes and image sensors all forecast to grow over 10% in 2017.

"Higher memory costs and component shortages are cause for concern as we enter the fourth quarter," said Erensen. "Memory is driving the bill-of-materials cost higher across electronic equipment categories and we are starting to see increased costs get passed on by OEMs through higher pricing."

The semiconductor market is forecast to increase 4% to US$427.4 billion in 2018, but slip 1% in 2019 as the memory market turns with leading vendors adding new supply, according to Gartner.