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Worldwide semiconductor revenue totalled $466.2 billion in 2020, an increase of 10.4% from 2019, according to final results by Gartner, Inc.
“Memory, GPUs and 5G chipsets led semiconductor growth, driven by hyperscale, PC, ultramobile and 5G handset end-market demand, while automotive and industrial electronics suffered due to lower spending or a pause in spending owing to COVID-19,” said Andrew Norwood, research vice president at Gartner.
Intel retained its position as the No. 1 global semiconductor vendor by revenue in 2020, followed by Samsung Electronics, SK hynix and Micron (see Table 1). Intel’s semiconductor revenue grew 7.4%, driven by growth of its core client and server CPU businesses. Overall, the top performers in the top 10 were NVIDIA and MediaTek. NVIDIA’s 45.2% growth was primarily driven by the company’s gaming-related and data centre businesses. MediaTek’s revenue grew 38.1% in 2020 driven by the disruption to Huawei’s business throughout the year.
Table 1. Top 10 Semiconductor Vendors by Revenue, Worldwide, 2020 (Millions of U.S. Dollars)
| 2020 Rank | 2019 Rank | Vendor | 2020 Revenue | 2020 Market Share (%) | 2019 Revenue | 2019-2020 Growth (%) |
| 1 | 1 | Intel | 72,759 | 15.6 | 67,754 | 7.4 |
| 2 | 2 | Samsung Electronics | 57,729 | 12.4 | 52,389 | 10.2 |
| 3 | 3 | SK hynix | 25,854 | 5.5 | 22,297 | 16.0 |
| 4 | 4 | Micron Technology | 22,037 | 4.7 | 20,254 | 8.8 |
| 5 | 6 | Qualcomm | 17,632 | 3.8 | 13,613 | 29.5 |
| 6 | 5 | Broadcom | 15,754 | 3.4 | 15,322 | 2.8 |
| 7 | 7 | Texas Instruments | 13,619 | 2.9 | 13,364 | 1.9 |
| 8 | 13 | MediaTek | 10,988 | 2.4 | 7,958 | 38.1 |
| 9 | 16 | NVIDIA | 10,643 | 2.3 | 7,331 | 45.2 |
| 10 | 14 | KIOXIA | 10,374 | 2.2 | 7,827 | 32.5 |
| Others
(outside top 10) |
208,848 | 44.8 | 194,228 | 7.5 | ||
| Total Market | 466,237 | 100.0 | 422,337 | 10.4 |
Source: Gartner (April 2021)
Memory Accounted for One-Third of Revenue Growth
Memory, which accounted for 26.7% of semiconductor sales in 2020, was the second best-performing device category, experiencing a 13.5% revenue increase. “Memory benefited from the key trend in 2020 — the shift to home working and learning — which fuelled increased server build from hyperscale vendors to satisfy online working and entertainment, as well as a surge in PCs and ultramobiles,” said Mr. Norwood.
Within memory, NAND flash experienced the best performance with revenue growth of 25.2% due to a shortage in 1H20. “In 2021 both NAND flash and DRAM will be in shortage, sending pricing higher though the year and revenues rocketing by around 25%” said Mr. Norwood. “This sets memory focused Samsung up with a good chance of recapturing the top spot in the semiconductor market from Intel in 2021.”