What you need to know
- Global semiconductor revenue grew by 26% in 2021, according to final results by Gartner.
- Samsung ranked first among semiconductor vendors, beating out Intel for the top spot.
- Total semiconductor revenue was 594,952 million in 2021.
Semiconductor revenue grew significantly in 2021, according to final figures from Gartner. Total revenue reached 594,952 million in the year, which was an increase of 26% year-over-year. The top-ten semiconductor vendors are familiar names in the industry, but it's notable that Samsung Electronics earned the top spot over Intel in terms of market share.
This was the first time that Samsung ranked above Intel since 2018. Samsung's revenue increased 28% year-over-year, while Intel saw a decline of 0.3%. SK Hynix trailed Intel by a large margin in terms of market share but saw a massive growth of 40.6% in revenue in 2021.
Gartner reported preliminary figures back in January for the semiconductor industry. The firm has since completed its tallies to form final results. The overall rankings are the same, and the numbers are similar, but Gartner's final results show a higher revenue figure than its preliminary findings.
| 2021 Rank | 2020 Rank | Vendor | 2021 Revenue (millions) | 2021 Market Share (%) | 2020 Revenue (millions) | 2020-2021 Growth (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | Samsung Electronics | 73,197 | 12.3 | 57,181 | 28.0 |
| 2 | 1 | Intel | 72,536 | 12.2 | 72,759 | -0.3 |
| 3 | 3 | SK Hynix | 36,352 | 6.1 | 25,854 | 40.6 |
| 4 | 4 | Micron Technology | 28,624 | 4.8 | 21,780 | 31.4 |
| 5 | 5 | Qualcomm | 27,093 | 4.6 | 17,664 | 53.4 |
| 6 | 6 | Broadcom | 18,793 | 3.2 | 15,754 | 19.3 |
| 7 | 8 | MediaTek | 17,617 | 3.0 | 10,988 | 60.2 |
| 8 | 7 | Texas Instruments | 17,272 | 2.9 | 13,619 | 26.8 |
| 9 | 10 | NVIDIA | 16,815 | 2.8 | 10,643 | 58.0 |
| 10 | 14 | AMD | 16,299 | 2.7 | 9,665 | 68.6 |
| - | - | Others (outside top 10) | 270,354 | 45.4 | 214,982 | 25.8 |
| - | - | Total semiconductor | 594,952 | 100.0 | 470,889 | 26.3 |
HiSilicon fell out of the top ten altogether. The company's revenue declined 81% compared to the previous year, from $8.2 billion to $1.5 billion. That drop was due in large part to sanctions placed by the U.S. government against Huawei, the parent company of HiSilicon.
DRAM accounted for 27.9% of the sales in 2021 and saw a 33.2% revenue increase in the period. The automotive and industrial markets also saw significant revenue growth.
