Global semiconductor TOP 10 list: Samsung ranks first, AMD jumps to seventh

According to preliminary results from Gartner, Inc., total global semiconductor revenue will increase 1.1% to $601.7 billion in 2022, up from $595 billion in 2021. The total revenue of the top 25 semiconductor suppliers will increase by 2.8% in 2022, accounting for 77.5% of the total revenue of the global semiconductor market.

"In early 2022, shortages of many semiconductor equipment led to extended lead times and higher prices, resulting in reduced electronic equipment production in many end markets. As a result, OEMs began to hedge their own shortages by hoarding chip inventories," Gartner Vice President Analysis Teacher Andrew Norwood said.

"However, by the second half of 2022, the global economy began to slow down under the pressure of high inflation, rising interest rates, rising energy costs and the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown in China, which affected many global supply chains. Consumers also began to spend less, Demand for PCs and smartphones took a hit, and then companies started reducing spending in response to the global recession, all of which impacted overall semiconductor growth."

Samsung Electronics remains at the top of the list despite a 10.4% revenue decline in 2022, mainly due to declines in memory and NAND flash memory sales (see Table 1). Intel ranks second with a market share of 9.7%. The company was affected by a sharp decline in the consumer PC market and fierce competition in the core x86 processor business, and revenue growth fell by 19.5%.

Among them, memory accounts for about 25% of semiconductor sales in 2022 and is the worst-performing equipment category, with revenue falling by 10%. By mid-2022, the memory market was already showing signs of a sharp decline in demand as electronic equipment OEMs began to deplete the memory inventories they held in anticipation of strong demand. The situation has now worsened to the point where most memory companies have announced reductions in capital expenditures (capex) for 2023, and some have cut wafer production to reduce inventory levels and try to bring the market back into balance.

Overall non-memory revenue grew 5.3%, but performance varied widely across device categories. The strongest growth came from Analog, up 19%, followed by Discretes, up 15% from 2021. Growth in analog and discrete devices is driven by strong demand in automotive and industrial end markets, which are supported by long-term growth trends in automotive electrification, industrial automation and the energy transition.

Semiconductor Industry Watch