Driven by a resurgent memory market and relatively flat sales results from Intel, IC Insights believes that Samsung will again replace Intel as the leading semiconductor producer beginning in the second quarter of this year.
Intel was locked in as the world's top semiconductor manufacturer from 1993 through 2016. However, after nearly a quarter of a century, the semiconductor industry saw a new number-one supplier beginning in 2017 when the memory market surged and Samsung displaced Intel. This unseating marked a milestone achievement not only for Samsung, but also for all other competing semiconductor producers who had tried for years to supplant Intel as the world's largest supplier, according to IC Insights.
Samsung held the leading semiconductor supplier spot for six quarters before the memory market collapsed in late 2018 and Intel once again became the leading IC supplier in the fourth quarter of 2018, IC Insights indicated. The memory market plunge was so steep in late 2018 and early 2019 that Samsung went from having 17% more revenue than Intel in third-quarter 2018 to having 18% less sales than Intel just two quarters later. Intel endured its own sales slump in the first quarter of 2019, although it was nowhere near the decline exhibited by the memory producers.
Intel's revenue rebounded sharply in the second half of 2019 but remained flat throughout most of 2020. Over the span of 10 quarters (from fourth-quarter 2018 to first-quarter 2021), Intel remained the top supplier, IC Insights noted. Meanwhile, Samsung's semiconductor sales have slowly climbed from the ashes of first-quarter 2019.
Intel is guiding its full-year 2021 sales to be down 1% as compared with 2020. With the DRAM market on the rise and the NAND flash market forecast to gain momentum in the second half of the year, it appears likely that Samsung will once again position itself at the number-one semiconductor supplier for the full year as well, IC Insights said.
