In line with previous years, IC Insights has released its 2017 global semiconductor vendor revenue rankings, highlighting a major shift in the industry landscape. This year, Samsung is set to surpass Intel, ending the latter's long-standing dominance and claiming the top spot. Meanwhile, MediaTek is expected to fall out of the top ten due to increased competition in memory and AI sectors. It's worth noting that professional foundries like TSMC are not included in this survey, so even though TSMC saw strong revenue growth, it doesn't appear in the rankings.
According to IC Insights, Samsung is projected to achieve $65.6 billion in revenue this year, capturing a 15% market share. This will make it the world’s largest semiconductor company for the first time since 1993, when Intel last held the title. This marks a historic shift in the semiconductor industry, as Intel has been the leader for over two decades.
Although Intel's revenue in the first quarter was still higher than Samsung’s, it dropped to second place in the second quarter. For the full year, Intel is expected to reach $60 billion in revenue, with a 13.9% market share. While this represents a 7% increase from the previous year's $57 billion, its market share has declined by 1.7%. Despite this, Intel's growth reflects Samsung's rising influence, driven by increasing memory prices rather than any decline in Intel's performance.
The memory sector faced a shortage, leading to rising prices. Alongside Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron also benefited significantly. SK Hynix is expected to generate $26.2 billion in revenue, climbing to third place globally, while Micron is projected to reach $24 billion, securing fourth place.
Leading chipmakers like Broadcom and Qualcomm also performed well. Broadcom's revenue is estimated at $17.6 billion, slightly ahead of Qualcomm’s $17.1 billion, placing them fifth and sixth, respectively. Texas Instruments, Toshiba, NVIDIA, and NXP follow closely behind.
Looking at China's chip design industry, the first quarter of 2017 saw a remarkable 23.8% growth, with sales reaching 35.16 billion yuan. China's self-designed chips now hold an 8% share of the global market, and 13% of the domestic market.
The China Semiconductor Industry Association released a ranking of Chinese IC design companies in 2016, showing significant consolidation. The merger of Ziguang Group with Spreadtrum and RDA created two major players with revenues exceeding 10 billion yuan. Companies like Xiaomi and others are making notable progress in the field.
In addition to the top ten, several interesting Chinese IC design firms are emerging. Memory chips and CPUs account for about 75% of China’s annual imports, emphasizing the importance of memory technology. Two Chinese companies, Mega Innovation and Yangtze River Storage, are actively working to break into the memory chip market. Globally, there are three main types of memory chips: DRAM, NAND Flash, and NOR Flash. Although NOR Flash ranks third, its market size is much smaller compared to the other two.
Artificial intelligence is shaping the future of the tech industry. Major players like Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, Huawei, Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft are all investing heavily in AI. In August 2017, Cambrian Technology, founded by brothers Chen Yunyi and Chen Tianshi from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, secured a $100 million Series A funding round, valuing the company at over $1 billion. This marked the emergence of China’s first IC unicorn, a milestone in the industry.
Notably, the average age of Cambrian’s team is just 25, with many members gaining experience in their fields while still in school. The founders, the Chen brothers, are both accomplished academics.
Another key player is Loongson, led by Dr. Hu Weiwu, who has focused on independent research and development. He trained the founder of Cambrian, Chen Yunqi, and helped build a group of talented chip designers. While Loongson chips have limited commercial potential, they are used in specialized applications such as BeiDou satellites, servers, industrial control, and embedded systems.
As an engineer, how do you view the current state of China's chip industry?
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