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AI is the hot driver

Flip Electronics’ president, Bill Bradford

Flip Electronics’ president, Bill Bradford, sees significant growth in AI applications but also alerts buyers to be on the lookout for increasing PDN or EOL notifications

We expect 2024 to be a good recovery year for the semiconductor industry overall, as the inventory overhang we’ve been experiencing this year continues to work down by the early part of the new year. The hot driver for semiconductor demand is and will continue to be AI, whether we’re talking networking or computing. While the automotive market is slowing, content increases and continued EV shift will result in 2024 growth in auto electronic component sales. Industrial demand should recover well in 2024, while consumer (especially cell phone and PC) will continue to be the laggard.

With this absorption of inventory and return to growth, we should see pricing stabilize and lead times return to more normal levels for most components. The wildcard will be the geopolitical and macro-economic uncertainty. My crystal ball can only see so much. Finally, a trend we pay close attention to is component obsolescence. As our industry shifts to advanced nodes and manufacturers consolidate their operations, we see the trend of increasing Product Discontinuance Notices (PDNs) or End-of- Life (EOL) notifications to continue to be a challenge to industries like industrial, medical, aerospace and defense.