The latest ranking: surpassing Intel, Samsung ranks first; AMD and MediaTek's sales soared by more than 60%!
AMD, MediaTek
On December 21, the well-known research organization IC Insights released the latest report, predicting that there will be 17 semiconductor companies with sales exceeding $10 billion this year, and ranking these 17 companies.
Several pieces of information can be seen from the above rankings: First, Samsung surpassed Intel in the first place, and Intel is the only company in all companies that experienced a decline in sales; second, AMD and MediaTek’s sales have increased significantly, reaching 60%. % Above, and the ranking has risen from 15 to 11 in 2020, and 12 to 9 respectively; third, there are still no mainland Chinese companies in this ranking.
Samsung Electronics surpasses Intel to rank first
According to the IC Insights report, Samsung’s sales in 2021 are expected to reach 833.1 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 34%, surpassing Intel to become the world’s largest semiconductor supplier. The global chip supply is tight this year, and Samsung Electronics' storage and chip foundry businesses have benefited from it.
Since the second quarter of this year, Samsung has begun to obtain Intel as a leading semiconductor company. According to the previously released financial report, Samsung Electronics’ operating income in the second quarter was 63.67 trillion won (about 55.349 billion U.S. dollars), a year-on-year increase of 20.21%; Net profit was 9.45 trillion won (approximately US$8.215 billion), a year-on-year increase of 72.18%.
The surge in chip demand boosted Samsung's semiconductor performance. According to the financial report, its semiconductor business unit’s operating income in the second quarter was 22.74 trillion won (approximately US$19.77 billion), exceeding market estimates of 21.18 trillion won, an increase of 28% over the same period.
Samsung said that the company's performance growth is due to global chip shortages and sharp price increases, strong demand for server and personal computer memory, while the prices of DRAM and NAND have risen sharply, and the company's memory business profits have risen sharply.
In addition, Samsung is also gaining momentum in chip foundry. Samsung has been committed to surpassing the world's largest chip foundry TSMC in the field of chip foundry. In the past few years, it has also been working hard to improve process technology and production capacity. This year, the global production capacity is in short supply. The advanced technology is fully loaded, which provides Samsung with many opportunities to acquire new customers.
According to recent news, when the global chip shortage shows no signs of slowing down, IBM and ST no longer wait for TSMC’s production capacity, but hand over the foundry orders to Samsung Electronics. IBM’s chips will be used in a new generation of servers, which ST needs. The MCU will be used in Apple's next-generation iPhone. It is reported that the last time Samsung Electronics won an MCU order was in 2017, from NXP.
A person from the Korea Semiconductor Industry Association recently stated that fabless companies are making various efforts to reduce supply chain risks. With the diversification of the supply chain, Samsung will occupy a larger market share.
According to foreign media reports, Samsung Electronics is seeking to obtain orders from TSMC’s major customers, including AMD. AMD is one of TSMC’s major customers. TSMC’s advanced process technology is an important factor driving AMD’s continuous increase in the chip market. And most of TSMC's 3nm process capacity has been booked by Apple, so AMD may choose Samsung foundry.
In addition, there is news recently that Samsung Electronics has won the contract for Tesla's next-generation autonomous driving chip HW 4.0. Samsung has a solid market position in memory. It is still vigorously expanding its chip foundry business. In the future, Samsung Electronics has a strong position. It may be firmly established as the leading semiconductor supplier.
AMD and MediaTek's sales have increased by more than 60%
Intel is facing competitive pressure from AMD in the data center, and its expansion in chip foundry has not seen any improvement. Intel's sales decline and its fall to the first position in the semiconductor industry does not seem to be unexpected.
AMD has grown rapidly in recent years. According to IC Insights’ forecasts, AMD’s sales growth this year is the largest, reaching 65%, and its ranking has risen from the original 15 to 11.
In the past period of time, AMD’s revenue has hit new highs consecutively, and it has performed well in the server and game console businesses. According to the latest financial report data, AMD achieved operating income of US$4.313 billion in the third fiscal quarter, an increase of 54% year-on-year, and a net profit of 923 million. US dollars, an increase of 137% year-on-year.
AMD is aggressively grabbing Intel’s market in the data center. Thanks to the increase in AMD CDNA 2 data center GPU shipments, the sales of AMD data center graphics chips have increased by more than 100% year-on-year. In addition, the EPYC series CPUs used in servers continue to help AMD Win more data center markets.
AMD President and CEO Su Zifeng (Lisa Su) said in the earnings call that AMD is confident of grabbing more market share from Intel.
After recent years of development, MediaTek is in a leading position in many fields such as mobile terminals, smart homes, wireless connection technology, and the Internet of Things. According to the forecast of IC Insights, MediaTek's sales growth this year will reach 60%, and the ranking will rise from 12 to 9.
MediaTek has occupied the world's number one position in the smartphone SoC market. According to data in the third quarter of this year, MediaTek’s market share in smartphone SoC reached 40% and has won the championship position in this field for six consecutive quarters. This is mainly due to Driven by competitive low-end 5G SoC and high-demand mid-to-high end 4G SoC.
A few years ago, MediaTek chips were basically the entry-level models of domestic brands. From the year before, after the birth of the Dimensity series, more and more mid-to-high-end models began to use MediaTek chips, including Xiaomi and OPPO. Big factory. In 2020, MediaTek successfully surpassed Qualcomm with an annual shipment of 352 million units, ranking first in global chip shipments.
According to Counterpoint analysis, MediaTek has won more shares in the low-end 5G product portfolio, and 4G SoC has further helped it consolidate its market position. The current rapid development of 5G brings opportunities to MediaTek. According to Counterpoint’s latest research report, global smartphone AP/SoC shipments increased by 6% year-on-year in the third quarter of this year, and 5G smartphone SoC shipments nearly tripled.
Chinese mainland semiconductor companies are not on the list
From this table, I don’t see the semiconductor companies in mainland China. After years of hard work, Huawei HiSilicon has already ranked among the top ten global semiconductors at the beginning of 2020. If there is no U.S. trade export restriction, HiSilicon is expected to rank very well on this list. Highly ahead, this also shows that Chinese semiconductor companies can occupy an important position in the global market through hard work.
In recent years, semiconductor companies in mainland China have been growing steadily. For example, SMIC’s revenue in the first three quarters of this year was 1.1 billion, 1.3 billion, and 1.4 billion US dollars. At present, SMIC has completed 14nm process mass production and 7nm process research and development. It is not currently on the list, but there is still a lot of room for growth in the future.
Mainland China’s semiconductors as a whole are showing an upward trend. According to the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the total output of chips in Mainland China will reach 139.9 billion in 2021. Compared with 2020, the shipments of semiconductor chips in Mainland China will be from January to May 2021. A year-on-year increase of 48.3%, chip shipments reached a new high.
It can be seen that the Chinese mainland market and semiconductor companies have great development potential, but the premise is to achieve breakthroughs in some stuck neck areas to avoid the same experience as HiSilicon after some semiconductor companies grow up in the future.
