Worldwide semiconductor revenue surpassed $500bn for first time in 2021 - Gartner

Strong demand for chips drove up prices, researcher says

Research from Gartner shows global semiconductor revenue leaped 25.1 per cent in 2021 compared with 2020 to surpass $500bn for the first time as strong demand drove up prices.

Preliminary results from the researcher show that Samsung regained the top spot with a market share of 13 per cent with Intel falling to second with a 12.5 per cent share of the market.

Demand for semiconductors has surged since the start of the pandemic as demand for hardware rose, which led to supply shortages for tech companies around the world.

"As the global economy bounced back in 2021, shortages appeared throughout the semiconductor supply chain, particularly in the automotive industry," said Andrew Norwood, research vice president at Gartner.

"The resulting combination of strong demand as well as logistics and raw material price increases drove semiconductors' average selling price higher, contributing to overall revenue growth in 2021.

"The 5G smartphone market also helped drive semiconductor revenue, with unit production more than doubling to reach 555 million in 2021, compared to 250 million in 2020.

"US sanctions imposed on Huawei resulted in other Chinese smartphone OEMs gaining share and fueling growth for 5G chipset vendors such as Qualcomm, MediaTek and Skyworks. Meanwhile HiSilicon, Huawei's chip subsidiary, saw revenue decline from $8.2bn in 2020 to around $1bn in 2021."

Memory proved to be the best-performing device category, which Gartner said was primarily due to "increased server deployments by hyperscale cloud providers to satisfy remote working, learning and entertainment needs, as well as a surge in end-market demand for PCs and ultramobiles".

Making up the rest of the top five were SK Hynik, Micron Technology and Qualcomm with a market share of 6.2 per cent, 4.9 per cent and 4.6 per cent respectively.