Taiwan’s TSMC, the worldwide leader in the semiconductor foundry industry, has surpassed 60 percent of the market share, widening its gap between with second-ranked Samsung Electronics. In the fourth quarter (October-December) of 2023, the foundry market grew about 8 percent from the previous quarter with TSMC’s sales increasing while Samsung Electronics’ sales decreasing. Intel dropped out of the club of the top 10 global foundry players.
Taiwan’s TSMC held a 61.2 percent market share in the fourth quarter of 2023, up 3.3 percentage points from the previous quarter, market research firm TrendForce said March 12. It posted US$19.66 billion in sales in the quarter, up 14.0 percent. The company returned to a market share in the 60 percent range after logging market shares in the 50 percent range for two consecutive quarters, starting in the second quarter of 2023.
“TSMC wafer shipments grew thanks to strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) for smartphones, laptops and artificial intelligence (AI) services,” TrendForce said, noting that its share in sales of sub-7 nanometer (nm) processes increased to 67 percent in the fourth quarter from 59 percent in the third quarter of 2023. “With the gradual growth of 3-nm wafer production, TSMC’s share will exceed 70 percent in advanced nodes,” it added.
In the fourth quarter of 2023, Samsung Electronics’ market share stood at 11.3 percent, down 1.1 percentage points from the previous quarter. Its sales hit US$3.619 billion, down 1.9 percent from the previous quarter. Its market share gap with TSMC widened to 49.9 percentage points from 45.5 percentage points in the third quarter of 2023.
The third through fifth ranked companies remained unchanged with the United States’ GlobalFoundries (5.8 percent), Taiwan’s UMC (5.4 percent), and China’s SMIC (5.2 percent). Compared to the third quarter of 2023, all the three players saw slight declines in their market shares.
Intel joined the club of the top 10 foundry players for the first time in the third quarter of 2023 by claiming the No. 9 spot but it was scratched off the top 10 list in the fourth quarter. “Factors such as generational changes in central processing units (CPUs) and weak inventory momentum pushed Intel out of the top 10, putting the U.S. chipmaker behind PSMC and Nexchip,” TrendForce explained.
In the fourth quarter of 2023, the world’s top 10 foundries racked up US$30.89 billion in sales, up 7.9 percent from the previous quarter. This was driven by continued demand for components for smartphones such as mobile application processors (APs) and power management ICs (PMICs) for budget smartphones. Apple’s launch of new iPhone models also helped boost demand for them.
“Last year was a challenging year for the foundry market with the top 10 players’ sales declining 13.6 percent to US$111.54 billion,” TrendForce said, “But this year, AI-driven demand is expected to boost annual sales in the foundry market by 12 percent to US$125.24 billion.”
Meanwhile, this year’s foundry market share rankings will be TSMC (62 percent), Samsung Electronics (10 percent), GlobalFoundries (6 percent), UMC (6 percent), and SMIC (5 percent) in the order that they appear, TrendForce recently forecast in a separate report.