What They Say
Omdia reported its Q4 2021 figures for the semiconductor business showing that Intel just, barely, squeezed past Samsung Electronics for the year as a whole although Samsung was in top spot in Q4 with $19.995 billion compared to 19.976 billion (which is probably within the ‘margin of error’.
While Intel was almost flat year on year, the other top ten suppliers each saw at least 15% growth and Nvidia, AMD, Qualcomm and Mediatek were all up by more than 50%. Part of the reason was the microprocessors, Intel’s key segment, were up by just 14% compared to other semiconductors, which were up 24%.
Total 2021 semiconductor industry revenue of $586.8 billion was $100 billion more than the next highest year on record, 2018, when the industry brought in $484.7 billion. YoY revenue growth in 2021 was 24.2%, the second highest on record since Omdia began tracking the metric in 2002.
The last quarter of 2021 was the fifth straight quarter of record revenue for the industry, with quarterly revenue rising to $159.1 billion, up 3.6% from the previous quarter – versus the long-term historical average of 0.6% QoQ increase in semiconductor revenue.
What We Think
The comparison of Intel’s growth compared to the rest is really amazing. Intel has been so strong for so long that it’s hard to get your head around. It will be interesting to see how its pivot to start to be more of a foundry business goes. Of course, the pure foundries don’t appear in this listing, although if they did, TSMC’s $55 billion would be below Samsung and Intel, but above the rest. (BR)
