Бизнес-агентство Bloomberg отмечает, что Intel удерживала лидирующую позицию в рейтинге крупнейших мировых чипмейкеров на протяжении четверти века — с 1992 года. Однако в эпоху триумфа мобильных устройств, Интернета вещей и подключённых электрокаров американская корпорация уступила пальму первенства Samsung.
И хотя в 2017 году Intel получила рекордный доход в размере $62,8 миллиарда (это соответствует росту на 6 % по сравнению с 2016 годом), даже этой астрономической суммы не хватило, чтобы приблизиться к показателям Samsung.
Международные СМИ сообщают, что в 2017 году выручка южнокорейского гиганта от реализации полупроводниковых микрочипов составила порядка $69,1 миллиарда. То есть результат Samsung на 10 % превзошёл показатели Intel.
Отметим, что общая выручка электронного бизнеса крупнейшего подразделения Samsung Group в прошлом году достигла $225 миллиардов, а чистая прибыль зафиксирована на уровне $50,7 миллиарда.
Samsung beats Intel to become top chipmaker
Samsung Electronics nudged past U.S. rival Intel last year to become the world's top chipmaker for the first time, an industry tracker said, Friday.
In its preliminary market estimate, Gartner said Samsung's 2017 revenue jumped 52.6 percent from a year earlier to $61.2 billion (65 trillion won), accounting for 14.6 percent of the global chip market. The Korean company's 2016 sales were $40.1 billion.
Intel, which enjoyed more than two decades of dominance dating back to 1992, saw a mere 6.7 percent increase in its sales to $57.7 billion, or a market share of 13.8 percent.
"The largest memory supplier, Samsung Electronics, gained the biggest market share and took the top position from Intel -- the first time Intel has been toppled since 1992," said Andrew Norwood, research vice president at Gartner.
The global research company said the key driver behind Samsung's ascent as the new industry leader was a memory chip boom.
"Memory accounted for more than two-thirds of all semiconductor revenue growth in 2017, becoming the largest semiconductor category," Norwood said.
NAND flash prices increased 17 percent from 2016 to 2017 for the first time ever, while DRAM prices rose 44 percent, Gartner added.
Samsung is a dominant leader in both sectors of DRAM and NAND flash -- the former used for desktop computers and the latter for mobile devices such as smartphones.
As for Intel, its single-digit growth was due to poor performance in its PC processor revenue with a 1.9 percent gain, dented by a sluggish market and the shift towards smartphones and tablets.
The booming demand for memory chips also led other major suppliers to perform strongly last year and rise in the rankings.
SK hynix, the world's second-largest memory chipmaker, came in third with a market share of 6.3 percent after its revenue growth surged by 79 percent from $14.7 billion in 2016 to $26.3 billion in 2017.
Micron Technology and Qualcomm rounded out the top five after registering market shares of 5.5 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively.
Worldwide semiconductor revenue totaled $419.7 billion in 2017, up 22.2 percent from 2016 and undersupply helped drive 64 percent revenue growth in the memory market, which accounted for 31 percent of total semiconductor revenue in 2017, according to the study.
