By Jonathan Easton
The worldwide semiconductor industry grew by over 25 per cent in 2021, a new report has revealed.
According to new figures from Gartner, worldwide semiconductor revenue totalled US$595 billion in 2021, an increase of 26.3 per cent from 2020.
Samsung regained top spot for the first time since 2018, with revenue increasing by 28 per cent to a 12.3 per cent total market share. Intel, the previous leader, saw its revenues decline by 0.3 per cent for a total share of 12.2 per cent. Sk Hynix was some way off in third with a 6.1 per cent market share, followed by Micron Technology and Qualcomm to round out the top five, which remains unchanged in order from 2020.
Within the top 10, AMD and Mediatek experienced the strongest growth in 2021 at 68.6% and 60.2 per cent growth, respectively.
Andrew Norwood, research vice president at Gartner, said: “The events behind the current chip shortage continue to impact original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) around the world, but the 5G smartphone ramp 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.
“HiSilicon’s revenue declined 81 per cent, from US$8.2 billion in 2020 to US$1.5 billion in 2021. This was a direct result of the US sanctions against the company and its parent company Huawei. This also impacted China’s share of the semiconductor market as it declined from 6.7 per cent share in 2020 to 6.5 per cent in 2021. South Korea had the largest increase in market share in 2021 as strong growth in the memory market propelled South Korea to garner 19.3 per cent of the global semiconductor market.”
