Chipmakers other than Intel lead the market for the first time since 1992

Samsung Electronics has overtaken competitor Intel to maintain its position as the number one semiconductor seller.
According to market research firm IHS Markit, Samsung Electronics recorded a semiconductor chip market share of 15.9% in the second quarter.
On the other hand, competitor Intel's market share remained at 13.9%.

Samsung Electronics has overtaken Intel in the semiconductor chip market since last year, and the industry assesses that this is the first time since 1992 that a chip maker other than Intel has led the market. However, as the NAND flash memory market has recently cooled, Samsung Electronics' market share has dropped by more than 3%, and it is analyzed that Intel slightly narrowed the gap with Samsung Electronics in the last quarter.

Samsung Electronics' second-quarter revenue was $19.2 billion, a 3.4% increase from the first quarter and a 33.7% increase compared to the second quarter of 2017. Intel achieved second-quarter revenue of $16.7 billion, a 6.3% increase from the first quarter. This is a 14.9% increase compared to the first quarter of 2017.

Total semiconductor market revenue in the second quarter reached $120.8 billion, showing growth across all applications and regions. Ron Ellwanger, Senior Analyst at IHS Markit, analyzed that “the market in the second quarter rose to a new level due to explosive growth in enterprise and storage.”

"This growth contributed to record sales not only in the data processing and wired communications markets but also in the microcomponent and memory categories," explained an analyst from Elbanger. Total revenue in the memory chip market reached $42 billion in the second quarter, marking the ninth consecutive year of memory sales growth.

In addition, experts predict that NAND flash memory prices will rise further in the future. Analyst Albenger forecasted, “If NAND flash memory prices increase, SSD demand and revenue will also increase.”

NAND flash sales expected to decline
According to DRAMeXchange, a market research firm that tracks memory chip prices, the average selling price of NAND flash, which has maintained stable growth, is expected to fall by about 10% in the third and fourth quarters. Due to weaker-than-expected demand for NAND flash, 3D NAND supply is showing an increasing trend as suppliers improve production volumes and expand production capacity.

Amidst this, Ajit Manocha, CEO of the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI), predicted at the recent Semicon West exhibition that “the semiconductor chip market will grow to $1 trillion by 2030.” He added, “Semiconductor sales grew by 22% last year, but almost no companies predicted this.”