Global #1 Chip Player
According to market research firm IC Insights, Samsung Electronics is likely to top the global semiconductor market excluding foundry this year with a market share of 15% and US$65.6 billion in annual sales. The company’s sales were US$44.3 billion last year.
Intel is expected to rank second for the first time since 1993 with US$61 billion in annual sales although its annual sales are estimated to go up by US$4 billion this year. Back in 1993, Samsung Electronics came in seventh. However, Samsung Electronics rose to the second place with a market share of 7.3% in 2006. Since then, Samsung Electronics continued to narrow the gap. According to the market research firm, Samsung Electronics invested a total of US$26 billion in its semiconductor manufacturing facilities this year, accounting for 29% of the global total.
SK Hynix, in the meantime, is expected to jump from fifth to third this year with US$26.2 billion in annual sales. Micron Technology is also expected to move up two notches to fourth with US$23.4 billion and Broadcom and Qualcomm are likely to move down from third to fifth and from fourth to sixth, respectively.
The rise of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix can be attributed to the growth of the global memory semiconductor market. This year, the DRAM and NAND flash market sales are estimated to increase 55% and 35% from a year earlier based on increasing server and smartphone memory demands. Intel entered the NAND flash market in 2005 by forming a joint venture with Micron Technology, but Intel currently ranks sixth in the market although it recently released some memory chips incorporating new technology such as 3D XPoint.
Industry insiders are predicting that the global semiconductor market will witness a sea change within 10 years from now. “Considering the likelihood of new M&A deals involving Qualcomm, NXP, Broadcom and so on, the global semiconductor market is likely to enter its maturity stage and the rankings of the companies in the market will go through a significant change down the road,” IC Insights commented.
This year’s global total semiconductor sales excluding foundry are estimated at US$438.5 billion, up 20% from a year ago, and the top 10 companies are expected to represent 58.5% of the total sales. The ratio was 55.3% last year.