Semiconductor industry

Electronic Integrated Circuit Export by Country as of 2016, by HS4 trade classification.
Export of discrete semiconductors as of 2016, by United Nations Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding Systems 4

The semiconductor industry is the aggregate collection of companies engaged in the design and fabrication of semiconductor devices. It formed around 1960, once the fabrication of semiconductors became a viable business. It has since grown to be a $412.2 billion industry in 2017.[1]

Industry structure

The global semiconductor industry is dominated by South Korea, the United States, Japan, Israel, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, China and the European Union.

Unique features of the industry include continuous growth but in a cyclical pattern with high volatility. While the current 20 year annual average growth of the semiconductor industry is on the order of 13%, this has been accompanied by equally above-average market volatility, which can lead to significant if not dramatic cyclical swings. This has required the need for high degrees of flexibility and innovation in order to constantly adjust to the rapid pace of change in the market as many products embedding semiconductor devices often have a very short life cycle.

At the same time, the rate of constant price-performance improvement in the semiconductor industry is staggering. As a consequence, changes in the semiconductor market not only occur extremely rapidly but also anticipate changes in industries evolving at a slower pace. The semiconductor industry is widely recognized as a key driver and technology enabler for the whole electronics value chain.[2]

Largest companies

The following are the 10 largest semiconductor companies as ranked in January 2018 by Gartner based on 2017 revenue.[3] Samsung is now number 1.

  1. Samsung Electronics
  2. Intel
  3. SK Hynix
  4. Micron Technology
  5. Qualcomm
  6. Broadcom
  7. Texas Instruments
  8. Toshiba
  9. Western Digital
  10. NXP
Major Semiconductor Companies
Name HQ country Revenue (US$) Net Profits (US$) Hardware Products
Samsung Electronics South Korea NAND flash memories, DRAMs, CMOS sensor, RF transceivers, OLED panels
Intel USA
Micron USA DRAM, NAND Flash, SSD, NOR Flash, Managed NAND, Multichip packages
TSMC 1 Taiwan
Qualcomm 2 USA
Broadcom 2 USA
SK Hynix South Korea
Texas Instruments (TI) USA
Toshiba Japan
NXP Netherlands
MediaTek 2 Taiwan
Infineon Germany
STMicroelectronics Switzerland
Apple 2,3 USA
Sony Japan
Nvidia 2 USA
Renesas Japan
Global foundaries 1 USA
ON Semiconductor
UMC 1 Taiwan

(1) Pure-play foundries

(2) Fabless supplies

(3) Custom processor made by TSMC and Samsung foundries

See also

References

  1. ↑ https://www.semiconductors.org/news/2018/02/05/global_sales_report_2017/annual_semiconductor_sales_increase_21.6_percent_top_400_billion_for_first_time//
  2. ↑ Staff, ReportLinker. “Global Semiconductor Market Outlook 2022.” January 13, 2016. February 19, 2016.
  3. ↑ "Gartner Says Worldwide Semiconductor Revenue Grew 22.2 Percent in 2017; Samsung Takes Over No. 1 Position". Gartner. January 4, 2018.
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