▲ Ranking of the top 10 semiconductor suppliers worldwide in terms of sales in 2021 (unit: million dollars, data source: Gartner)



Samsung Electronics Ranks First in Global Semiconductor Sales for the First Time in 3 Years
Logistics and raw material price increases… Impact of semiconductor price increase in 2021

Gartner has announced its final results for global semiconductor revenue in 2021.

According to Gartner, global semiconductor revenue in 2021 was $595 billion, a 26.3% increase from 2020.

Andrew Norwood, research vice president at Gartner, said, “While the events behind the current semiconductor chip shortage continue to impact global original equipment manufacturing (OEM) activity, the launch of 5G smartphones and strong demand for them, as well as increased logistics and raw material costs, drove up semiconductor average selling prices (ASPs) and contributed significantly to revenue growth in 2021.”

Samsung Electronics regained the top spot for the first time since 2018, overtaking Intel with a 28% increase in sales in 2021, although the gap with Intel in the market share battle was less than 1 percentage point. Intel's sales decreased by 0.3%, recording 12.2% market share compared to Samsung's 12.3%. AMD and MediaTek, which ranked in the top 10, showed the strongest growth in 2021, accounting for 68.6% and 60.2%, respectively.

The biggest change in the 2021 semiconductor supplier rankings is that HiSilicon has fallen out of the top 25. “HiSilicon’s revenue has decreased 81% from $8.2 billion in 2020 to $1.5 billion in 2021,” said Vice President Norwood, explaining that “this is a direct result of the U.S. sanctions on the company and its parent company, Huawei.”

He continued, “This also affected China’s semiconductor market share, which fell from 6.7% in 2020 to 6.5% in 2021. In terms of growth in the memory market, Korea showed the largest increase in market share in 2021, accounting for 19.3% of the global semiconductor market.”

There was strong demand in the automotive and wireless communications sectors last year.

Compared to the 2020 market recession due to COVID-19, 2021 saw a strong recovery in demand in the automotive and industrial markets. The automotive semiconductor market grew 34.9% in 2021, outperforming all other sectors. The wireless communications sector, dominated by smartphones, grew 24.6%. Production of 5G handsets reached 556 million units in 2021, up from 251 million units in 2020, and enterprises upgraded their Wi-Fi infrastructure to accommodate employees returning to the office.

The memory segment, led by DRAM, accounted for 27.9% of semiconductor revenue in 2021, growing 33.2% year-over-year, or $41.3 billion. Memory has consistently benefited from key demand trends over the past several years, such as the shift to remote and hybrid work and learning. This trend has driven increased server deployments by hyperscale cloud service providers and a surge in end-market demand for PCs and ultramobiles to meet the demands of online work and entertainment.