Worldwide semiconductor revenue grew 25.1 per cent in 2021 to total $583.5 billion, surpassing the $500 billion mark for the first time, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc.
“As the global economy bounced back in 2021, shortages appeared throughout the semiconductor supply chain, particularly in the automotive industry,” said Andrew Norwood, research vice-president at Gartner.
“The resulting combination of strong demand as well as logistics and raw material price increases drove semiconductors’ average selling price higher (ASP), contributing to overall revenue growth in 2021,” Norwood said.
Samsung Electronics takes top spot
Samsung Electronics regained the top spot from Intel for the first time since 2018, with its revenue increasing 31.6 per cent in 2021. Its memory revenue grew 34.2 per cent in 2021, in line with the growth rate of the overall memory market. Samsung held a market share of 13 per cent in 2021 in the semiconductor market.
Intel dropped to the second position with 0.5 per cent growth in 2021, delivering the lowest growth rate among the top 25 vendors. It held a 12.5 per cent market market share in 2021.
Intel was followed by SK Hynix, Micron Technology and Qualcomm with 6.2 per cent, 4.9 per cent and 4.6 per cent market shares, respectively.
Broadcom, MediaTek, Texas Instruments, Nvidia and AMS rounded out the list of top ten vendors with market shares of 3.2 per cent, 3.0 per cent, 2.9 per cent, 2.8 per cent and 2.7 per cent, respectively.
“The 5G smartphone market also helped drive semiconductor revenue, with unit production more than doubling to reach 555 million in 2021, compared to 250 million in 2020. US sanctions imposed on Huawei resulted in other Chinese smartphone OEMs gaining share and fuelling growth for 5G chipset vendors such as Qualcomm, MediaTek and Skyworks. Meanwhile HiSilicon, Huawei’s chip subsidiary, saw revenue decline from $8.2 billion in 2020 to around $1 billion in 2021,” said Norwood.
Memory, best-performing device category
Memory was yet again the best-performing device category. This was “primarily due to increased server deployments by hyperscale cloud providers to satisfy remote working, learning and entertainment needs, as well as a surge in end-market demand for PCs and ultramobiles,” as per the report.
Revenue in the category increased $42.1 billion over 2020, which amounted to 33.8 per cent of overall semiconductor revenue growth in 2021.
Within memory, DRAM recorded the highest growth with revenue growth of 40.4 per cent in 2021, increasing revenue to $92.5 billion in 2021.
“Strong demand from servers and PCs created a DRAM undersupply that drove double-digit ASPs through most of the year,” it said.