New research by Gartner indicated that investment is likely to exceed $35.4 billion (£24.3 billion) compared with the 2009 figure of $16.6 billion.
However, Klaus Reinen, the company's managing vice-president, warned that spending on semiconductor equipment will increase by only 6.6 per cent in 2011 as the industry focuses on macroeconomic conditions.
He said: "Investment at the 3x Node [interface] by Intel, an increase in spending by NAND memory producers and the transition to the next generation DDR3 DRAM memory are the key investment growth drivers."
Last week, Gartner predicted that global semiconductor revenues would increase by 27 per cent during 2010, a prediction similar to that of Morris Chang - chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing - who also foresaw a strong year for the industry.
