Samsung set to reclaim top spot, overtaking Intel

Samsung set to reclaim top spot, overtaking Intel. January. 27, 2025 07:12. by ??? blick@donga.com.
Samsung Electronics is expected to reclaim the top spot as the world's leading semiconductor supplier in terms of sales from last year. Global market research firm Gartner reports that Samsung's semiconductor sales rose by 62.5 percent year-on-year to $66.5 billion, surpassing Intel's $49.2 billion.

It has been two years since 2022 when Samsung Electronics surpassed Intel as the world's No. 1 chipmaker. While Samsung struggled in the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market last year, it saw growth in the general-purpose semiconductor market. “After two consecutive years of decline, memory product sales rebounded strongly last year,” Gartner said. "Samsung is expected to have achieved an average annual growth rate of 4.9% over the five years leading up to last year."

NVIDIA, the current leader in the artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor market, is expected to rank third, following Intel. Gartner forecasts NVIDIA's revenue for last year to reach $46 billion, an 83.6% increase from 2023.

Taiwan's TSMC, which produces semiconductors solely on a contract basis, was not included in the survey. TSMC's annual revenue last year was NT$2.8943 trillion (approximately KRW127 trillion).