• Key drivers are the explosion in the volume of visual data, advanced deep learning models, and the availability of AI chips.
• China’s computer vision leadership is likely to be hindered by limited access to advanced Western chip manufacturing technology.

The global computer vision (CV) market will be worth $32.8 billion in 2030, up from $12.5 billion in 2021 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11%, says GlobalData. According to the leading data and analytics company’s latest thematic report, ‘Computer Vision’, the explosion in the volume of visual data, coupled with the increased sophistication of artificial neural networks and the availability of chips created specifically for artificial intelligence (AI) processes, will collectively drive growth in the CV market over the coming years.

Josep Bori, Research Director at GlobalData Thematics Intelligence, comments: ‘‘The next frontier for CV is autonomous vehicles and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), as the level of underlying intelligence required is significantly higher than that needed to recognize faces or read barcodes. An internal three-dimensional representation of the world, spatial awareness, and planning and reasoning capabilities are needed. Fully autonomous vehicles (Level 5) are not expected until 2035, largely because of these CV challenges. Competition in these fields will intensify in the coming years.’’

Using CV in facial recognition will increase divergence over standards and regulatory approaches, driven by ethical and political reasons. This will ultimately lead to a supply chain decoupling in the CV segment, as is already underway in semiconductors. Once the regulatory wheels are in motion, it will likely impact the CV market beyond just facial recognition.

CV is fueling the escalation in US-China trade tensions, as it relies on advanced AI chips due to the exponential increase in data sets’ sizes and algorithms’ complexity. As such, the ongoing US-China trade dispute, which has led to the US prohibiting the export of either advanced AI chips or the advanced tools to manufacture them to China, will disrupt the competitive landscape of the CV industry.

Bori adds: “Unless China solves its access to extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography technology, currently indirectly prevented by the US sanctions, and can manufacture more powerful and miniaturized chips (i.e., on 5 and 3 nanometer nodes), it will struggle in AI in the data center and related fields such as CV.”