No. 1! Samsung Beats Intel, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Captures Semiconductor Crown Amidst AI Boom

Driven by graphics processing units and artificial intelligence processors used in data centre applications, worldwide semiconductor revenue in 2024 totalled $626 billion, an increase of 18.1% from 2023, according to preliminary results by research and consulting firm Gartner.

Revenue in 2025 is projected to total $705 billion.

Data centres became the second-largest semiconductor market in 2024, behind smartphones, because of the growing need for AI and generative AI workloads. Revenue from data centre semiconductors increased from $64.8 billion in 2023 to $112 billion in 2024.

Semiconductor vendors’ rankings were impacted by the market’s overall strong performance. In 2024, just eight of the top 25 semiconductor suppliers reported a fall in sales, while 11 saw double-digit growth.

Thanks to a robust recovery in memory device prices, Samsung Electronics regained its top rank and increased its lead in 2024 against biggies like Intel, Nvidia, and Qualcomm. Samsung Electronics’ revenue totalled $66.5 billion in 2024.

Intel came in second, as its AI PCs and the Core Ultra chipset were not enough to make up for the limited success of its AI accelerator offering and the modest growth in its x86 business. Intel’s semiconductor revenue was flat at 0.1% growth in 2024.

Nvidia maintained its performance, boosting its semiconductor revenue to $46 billion in 2024, an 84% increase. Because of the success of its AI business, it climbed two points to take the third slot.

Qualcomm dropped from third position in 2023 to fifth in 2024, while Apple slipped one spot to settle in ninth among top ten semiconductor vendors by revenue.

Memory revenue recorded 71.8% revenue growth in 2024. Memory’s share as a percentage of total semiconductor sales increased to 25.2% in 2024. DRAM revenue improved 75.4% in 2024 while NAND revenue increased 75.7% year-over-year.

High-bandwidth memory (HBM) production contributed significantly to the revenue for DRAM vendors. HBM revenue represented 13.6% of total DRAM revenue in 2024.

Nonmemory revenue increased 6.9% in 2024. Nonmemory accounted for 74.8% of total semiconductor revenue in 2024.

With memory and AI semiconductors driving near-term growth, HBM’s share of DRAM revenue is set to increase, reaching 19.2% in 2025, and HBM revenue is estimated to increase 66.3% in 2025, reaching $19.8 billion, according to Gartner.