Worldwide semiconductor revenue totaled $466.2 billion in 2020, an increase of 10.4% from 2019, according to final results by Gartner, Inc.
“Memory, GPUs and 5G chipsets led semiconductor growth, driven by hyperscale, PC, ultramobile and 5G handset end-market demand, while automotive and industrial electronics suffered due to lower spending or a pause in spending owing to COVID-19,” said Andrew Norwood, research vice president at Gartner.
Intel retained its position as the No. 1 global semiconductor vendor by revenue in 2020, followed by Samsung Electronics, SK hynix and Micron (see Table 1). Intel’s semiconductor revenue grew 7.4%, driven by growth of its core client and server CPU businesses. Overall, the top performers in the top 10 were NVIDIA and MediaTek. NVIDIA’s 45.2% growth was primarily driven by the company’s gaming-related and data center businesses. MediaTek’s revenue grew 38.1% in 2020 driven by the disruption to Huawei’s business throughout the year.
Table 1. Top 10 Semiconductor Vendors by Revenue, Worldwide, 2020 (Millions of U.S. Dollars)
2020 Rank |
2019 Rank |
Vendor |
2020 Revenue |
2020 Market Share (%) |
2019 Revenue |
2019-2020 Growth (%) |
1 |
1 |
Intel |
72,759 |
15.6 |
67,754 |
7.4 |
2 |
2 |
Samsung Electronics |
57,729 |
12.4 |
52,389 |
10.2 |
3 |
3 |
SK hynix |
25,854 |
5.5 |
22,297 |
16.0 |
4 |
4 |
Micron Technology |
22,037 |
4.7 |
20,254 |
8.8 |
5 |
6 |
Qualcomm |
17,632 |
3.8 |
13,613 |
29.5 |
6 |
5 |
Broadcom |
15,754 |
3.4 |
15,322 |
2.8 |
7 |
7 |
Texas Instruments |
13,619 |
2.9 |
13,364 |
1.9 |
8 |
13 |
MediaTek |
10,988 |
2.4 |
7,958 |
38.1 |
9 |
16 |
NVIDIA |
10,643 |
2.3 |
7,331 |
45.2 |
10 |
14 |
KIOXIA |
10,374 |
2.2 |
7,827 |
32.5 |
|
|
Others (outside top 10) |
208,848 |
44.8 |
194,228 |
7.5 |
|
|
Total Market |
466,237 |
100.0 |
422,337 |
10.4 |
Source: Gartner (April 2021)
Memory Accounted for One-Third of Revenue Growth
Memory, which accounted for 26.7% of semiconductor sales in 2020, was the second best-performing device category, experiencing a 13.5% revenue increase. “Memory benefited from the key trend in 2020 — the shift to home working and learning — which fueled increased server build from hyperscale vendors to satisfy online working and entertainment, as well as a surge in PCs and ultramobiles,” said Mr. Norwood.
Within memory, NAND flash experienced the best performance with revenue growth of 25.2% due to a shortage in 1H20. “In 2021 both NAND flash and DRAM will be in shortage, sending pricing higher though the year and revenues rocketing by around 25%” said Mr. Norwood. “This sets memory focused Samsung up with a good chance of recapturing the top spot in the semiconductor market from Intel in 2021.”
Gartner clients can get more information in “Market Share Analysis: Semiconductors, Worldwide, 2020.”
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