According to market research firm Omdia on March 28, Samsung Electronics fell to third place in the global semiconductor company revenue rankings last year. The annual sales of Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor (DS) division were reported to be US$44.374 billion, marking a 33.8% decrease from the US$67.055 billion recorded in 2022. This decline, which saw Samsung’s DS division drop two places from first to third, is attributed to an unprecedented downturn in the memory business, traditionally Samsung’s cash cow. Omdia explained that Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor sales last year were half of what they were during the semiconductor boom in 2021.
Intel also saw a decrease in sales by 15.8% compared to the previous year but managed to reclaim the top sales position for the first time in two years, benefiting from Samsung Electronics’ poor performance.
The rankings of other traditional memory powerhouses like SK hynix and Micron also declined. Last year, SK hynix’s sales dropped 30.6% to US$23.68 billion from US$34.1 billion the previous year, moving down from fourth to sixth place. Similarly, Micron Technology of the United States saw its sales plummet by 25.1%, from US$26.87 billion to US$15.963 billion, pushing its ranking from sixth to twelfth.
On the other hand, Nvidia, the world’s largest graphics processing unit (GPU) company equipped with AI as a new growth engine, saw its performance soar. Last year, Nvidia achieved sales of US$49.161 billion, a whopping increase of 133.6% from US$21.049 billion the previous year. Nvidia was the only company among the top 20 revenue-generating companies surveyed by Omdia to record a sales increase of over 100%.
Nvidia’s sales ranking jumped to second place, overtaking Samsung Electronics, largely due to the booming generative AI market and the resulting surge in GPU demand. Nvidia virtually monopolizes the global AI chip market, holding over 90% of the market.
Qualcomm and Broadcom ranked fourth and fifth in sales, with revenues of US$30.913 billion and US$28.427 billion, respectively.
It’s worth noting that this revenue assessment does not include foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) companies. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), a leading foundry firm, reported revenue of 2.161736 trillion New Taiwan Dollars, a 4.5% decrease from the previous year’s 2.263891 trillion New Taiwan Dollars.