Rest of Asia makes up difference, but causes for shift still unknown.
EDA and hardware IP revenue grew 14.4% to $4.522 billion in Q1, extending a streak that began several years ago with unabated double-digit growth. But the upbeat report masked a sharp sales drop in China for reasons that have yet to be determined.
Revenue in the overall Asia/Pacific region grew a healthy 19% YoY, while China was -6.3%. The negative impact was offset by new strength in India, up 41%; South Korea, up 19%; Taiwan, up 40%; and the rest of Asia, up 3%.
“It used to be a regular thing where China showed 20% to 40% growth,” said Walden Rhines, executive sponsor of the SEMI Electronic Design Market Data report. “The last quarter [of 2023] was weak. Now it’s negative.”
It’s not clear whether this is due to a continuing economic slowdown in China, or whether Chinese EDA vendors are developing their own tools, which are not reported in these numbers. Rhines noted that EDA revenue generally is not tied to the overall economic picture. But significant growth across the rest of Asia represents a major location shift for hardware activity in the region.
Another surprise was low PCB revenue, which came in at just 2.8% growth. PCB sales have been strong in the past, as reflected in the four-quarter moving average, where sales grew 13.2%. It’s not clear what’s changed there, as well.
For the quarter, CAE grew 13% worldwide to $1.621 billion, while IC physical design was up 13.9% at $770 million. IP grew 18.6% to $1.578 billion, while services jumped 22.3% to $174 million.
Fig. 1: Q1 2024 revenues by segment and geographic region. Source: SEMI Electronic Design Market Data
Fig. 2: Total EDA, SIP, and services revenue by region. Source: SEMI EDMD
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