Samsung Yields Crown to Intel in 3Q Semiconductor Market Amid Memory Slump

Market Research Firm Omdia Releases Semiconductor Market Statistics for Q3 This Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Pyeonghwa] As the downturn in the memory-centric semiconductor market intensifies, Samsung Electronics has lost its position as the world's number one semiconductor company in the third quarter to Intel. SK Hynix also dropped one rank from third to fourth place.

According to market research firm Omdia on the 22nd, the global semiconductor market size based on revenue in the third quarter of this year was $147 billion, down 7% from the previous quarter ($158 billion). The market had been growing steadily due to increased demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, but a down cycle arrived this year, causing the market to shrink from the second quarter onward.

Cliff Limbach, senior researcher at Omdia, explained, "The decline in the second quarter was due to weakness in the PC market and Intel's 17% revenue drop compared to the previous quarter, whereas the cause of the third quarter decline was weakness in the memory market. Memory market profits decreased by 27% quarter-on-quarter due to customers adjusting inventory and reduced demand from data centers, PCs, and mobile devices."

In fact, major memory suppliers recorded revenue decreases exceeding $10 billion in the third quarter of this year, showing negative growth compared to the previous quarter. Samsung Electronics experienced a decline of 28.1%, SK Hynix 26.2%, and U.S. Micron 27.7%, respectively.

This caused changes in the global semiconductor market landscape. Samsung Electronics, which was the top company in the previous quarter, fell to second place behind Intel this quarter. SK Hynix, previously third, dropped to fourth place behind Qualcomm. Micron also slipped one rank from fifth to sixth.

However, these statistics do not include Taiwan's foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) company TSMC. TSMC recorded revenue of 613 billion New Taiwan dollars ($19.64297 billion) in the third quarter of this year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.