Samsung Surpasses Intel As World's Top Semiconductor Company In 2021 Powered By Memory Chip Business And Momentum In Logic ICs

South Korean electronics manufacturing giant Samsung Electronics surpassed U.S chipmaker Intel to become the world's leading chipmaker by revenue in 2021, according to a report released by research firm Counterpoint Technology Market Research.

While Intel posted relatively flattish results, Samsung took the lead with a strong DRAM and NAND flash market performance in 2021. Samsung also saw solid momentum in logic chips this year.

While Samsung is the dominant player in memory chip market (both DRAM & NAND) with 44% market share in DRAM chips (dynamic random access memory used for temporary storage in desktops) and 36% in NAND devices (used for permanent storage in mobiles), the company aim to become the world leader in logic chips by 2030.

In terms of semiconductor sales in 2020, Samsung was at the second position behind Intel(approximately $62 billion revenue versus Intel's $76 billion). By the end of 2020, Samsung had also emerged as the second biggest player (by revenues) in the overall electronics industry (approximately $220 billion revenue versus Apple's $260 billion).

Memory Vendors Dominate The List

Memory vendors continued to lead the industry with SK Hynix and Micron taking the third and fourth positions, followed by IC design vendors, including Qualcomm and NVIDIA. The ranking excludes pureplay foundries such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC).

According to the report by Counterpoint, major smartphone SoC and GPU vendors also enjoyed strong growth in the year with over 50% YoY revenue increase.

In addition, we saw 27% YoY revenue growth among the top 15 vendors, outperforming global semiconductor revenue growth and implying another year of centralized semiconductor industry.

The report also forecast that supply constraints in semiconductor industry will likely persist till the second half of 2022 after which new foundry investments could ease the pressure a bit. High performance computing, metaverse (AR/VR/XR), 5G and automotive remain key semi content growth drivers for the industry, the report said.

Also Read: Samsung’s 2021 Profit Soars Driven By Robust Demand For Smartphones And Semiconductor Chips