Gartner: "Samsung Electronics Reclaims Global Semiconductor No.1 in 2023... SK Hynix Ranks 4th"

Market research firm Gartner forecasted that Samsung Electronics will reclaim the top spot in semiconductor supplier revenue last year, surpassing Intel. SK Hynix, which is soaring ahead with its competitive edge in High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), is expected to rise to 4th place globally.

Samsung Electronics Seocho Building, Seocho-gu, Seoul Photo by Yonhap News

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According to Gartner on the 26th, global semiconductor sales last year were projected at $626 billion, down 18.1% from the previous year ($530 billion). Among these, the total revenue of the top 25 semiconductor suppliers was predicted to increase by 21.1% compared to the previous year. Consequently, the market share of these 25 companies is expected to rise from 75.3% in 2023 to 77.2% in 2024, an increase of 1.9 percentage points.

Amid the global economic downturn, the polarization of demand between AI semiconductor products such as HBM and general-purpose (legacy) products has intensified, resulting in mixed fortunes among semiconductor companies.

Samsung Electronics is expected to regain the world’s number one position it lost to Intel in 2023 within just one year. Samsung’s estimated semiconductor revenue last year was $66.5 billion, a 62.5% increase from the previous year. Gartner analyzed, "Memory product sales, which had declined for two consecutive years, rebounded significantly last year," and "Samsung is expected to record a 4.9% compound annual growth rate over the past five years through last year."

Intel’s semiconductor revenue was forecasted to increase by only 0.15% to $49.2 billion. Intel is experiencing its worst crisis ever, having conducted large-scale layoffs and postponed some factory investments due to poor performance last year. CEO Pat Gelsinger also stepped down after four years.

NVIDIA, regarded as the biggest beneficiary of the AI era, is expected to rise two places to 3rd. Gartner predicted NVIDIA’s semiconductor revenue last year to be $46 billion, growing 63.4% in 2023 and an additional 83.6% last year.

SK Hynix, which has gained an advantage in the HBM market, is expected to climb two places to 4th. Gartner’s revenue forecast for SK Hynix, released before its earnings announcement on the 23rd, was $42.8 billion, an 86% increase from the previous year. Gartner stated, "This is due to the rise in average selling prices (ASP) of memory and early leadership advantages in HBM for AI applications."

On the 23rd, SK Hynix announced that its consolidated revenue for last year was preliminarily estimated at 66.193 trillion KRW, a 102% increase from the previous year. This is the highest performance in the company’s history, exceeding the previous record of 44.6216 trillion KRW in 2022 by more than 21 trillion KRW.

However, this survey excluded Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s number one foundry specializing only in semiconductor contract manufacturing. TSMC announced on the 10th that its annual net sales last year were 2.8943 trillion TWD (approximately $88.6 billion), a 33.9% increase from the previous year. Including TSMC, it is effectively the world’s top semiconductor revenue earner last year.

Meanwhile, Gartner expects memory semiconductor sales to increase by 71.8% year-on-year, far outpacing the growth rate of non-memory semiconductors (6.9%). "Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and AI processors used in data center applications such as servers were the highlights in the chip sector, expected to reach $39.8 billion," it said, "while semiconductor sales for automotive applications are expected to grow by only 4.3%, much lower than initially anticipated."

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