Samsung was the leading semiconductor vendor in 2021 | Worldwide semiconductor revenue grew by 26%

April 17th 2022

2 mins read

Samsung was the leading semiconductor vendor in 2021 | Worldwide semiconductor revenue grew by 26%

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In 2021, the worldwide semiconductor revenue reached a total of $595 billion, which was a 26.3% year-on-year increase from 2020. According to a report from Gartner, leading the semiconductor market in 2021 was Samsung, with $73.1 billion in revenue, a 28.0% year-on-year growth. The Korean chip makers were able to take first place from Intel for the first time since 2018 and captured a 12.3% market share in 2021. The US-based chip maker, Intel, was not that far behind with its 12.2% market share and $72.5 billion revenue. Intel did see a 0.3% year-on-year decline in revenue in 2021.

SK Hynix rounded up the top three with a 6.1% market share and $36.3 billion in revenue. Big names like Qualcomm, MediaTek, NVIDIA, and AMD were all on the top 10 list on the 5th, 7th, 9th, and 10th spot, respectively, with 4.6%, 3.0%, 2.8 %, and 2.7% market share.

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According to the report, HiSilicon dropping out of the top 25 impacted China’s share of the semiconductor market. With HiSilicon’s revenue declining 81% in 2021, this impacted China’s semiconductor share, and the country saw a 6.5% share in 2021, a decline from 6.7% in 2020. Talking about countries, South Korea saw the largest growth in market share, reaching 19.3% in 2021.

“The events behind the current chip shortage continue to impact original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) around the world, but the 5G smartphone ramps up and a combination of strong demand and logistics/raw material price increases drove semiconductor average selling prices (ASPs) higher, contributing to significant revenue growth in 2021,” - Andrew Norwood, research vice president at Gartner.

The report from Gartner also points out that the year was driven by DRAM sales. It accounted for 27.9% of all semiconductor sales, while the revenue was up by 33.2% in 2021. The year also saw a return in strong demand to the automotive and industrial markets compared to 2020. The wireless communications market saw a growth of 24.6%, while the automotive market grew 34.9% in 2021.

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