"We expect sales in the U.S. to grow by about 20-25% this year. As several semiconductor fabs are being built in the U.S., equipment demand is expected to rise along with them." An official from Pfeiffer Vacuum, a German semiconductor vacuum technology company, said this in an interview with our reporter at SEMICON West 2023, the semiconductor equipment and materials exhibition that opened on the 11th (local time) at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, USA. He explained, "We have set a target of raising sales from $800 million last year to $1 billion this year. With major companies such as Samsung and TSMC building new fabs, we see more opportunities ahead." SEMICON West is an event held every year by SEMI (Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International). It was held as a fully in-person event for the first time in three years, since 2020, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. Reflecting expectations for the U.S. market, about 600 companies from around the world set up booths at this exhibition. The organizers expect about 25,000 visitors over the three days through the 13th. The numbers of participating companies and attendees are each up more than 30% from last year, when the event was held in a combined online and offline format. Recently, competition between countries, centered on the U.S. and China, has been intensifying over semiconductor leadership. Backed by the Joe Biden administration's semiconductor support law and other measures, global semiconductor companies are racing to build fabs in the U.S. Global companies including Samsung Electronics, Taiwan's TSMC, and America's Micron, Intel, and IBM are building fabs. Semiconductor equipment maker Applied Materials and others have also announced plans to build fabs. With semiconductor demand surging due to the development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, the growth outlook for the semiconductor industry is also bright. The industry expects the semiconductor market, currently at about $500 billion, to reach $1 trillion by 2030. Several companies met at the exhibition also projected that sales growth this year would be substantial. KLA, a well-known American semiconductor inspection equipment company, unveiled its 'Nano Indenter', which measures the hardness of semiconductor materials. Brian Crawford, product marketing manager at KLA, said, "Expectations for demand for semiconductor inspection equipment are high," adding, "We expect demand to grow by more than 20%." June Dedos Rayes, partnership manager at German company Pfeiffer Vacuum, also said, "There are many competitors for each product, but we expect sales, currently at about $800 million, to grow to $1 billion in 2024." Korean companies also voiced expectations for expanding into the U.S. market. A total of about 50 Korean companies visited SEMICON West, including 11 that set up booths in the Korea Pavilion supported by KOTRA (Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency). DK Lok, a semiconductor equipment parts maker, established a joint venture in the U.S. last May and began a full-scale push into the U.S. market. Kim Hyun-su, CEO of the company, said, "Sales were 110 billion won last year, and we expect more than 130 billion won this year," adding, "In particular, we expect sales in the U.S. market to grow by about 50%." AIBIZ is a startup that has developed technology for improving semiconductor yield using AI algorithms. The company, now in its third year since founding, also took part in this exhibition. Ha Seung-jae, CEO, whom we met at the booth, explained, "For a company that earns trillions of won in sales, improving semiconductor yield by even 1 percentage point has an effect of boosting sales by tens of billions of won every year. We took part in this exhibition to introduce to the U.S. market our technology, which is currently in the final verification stage with a Korean semiconductor company." Ha added, "Data security is extremely important for semiconductor manufacturers, so they tightly block outside access to it. Our company uses an on-premises approach that does not rely on cloud computing, so there is no concern about data leakage." Due to the impact of tighter U.S. government regulations, Chinese companies were hard to find at this exhibition. Even those that did set up booths mostly handled consumables-focused products. An official from CX Tech, a Chinese company that produces chemicals used on wafers, said, "Perhaps because of the sanctions, there seemed to be few Chinese companies, about 15," adding, "We took part in this exhibition because consumables are not subject to sanctions." San Francisco = Choi Jin-seok, correspondent iskra@hankyung.com