The world's top-15 semiconductor companies saw their combined sales surge 21% from a year earlier in the first quarter of 2021, 3pp greater than the 18% growth the total worldwide semiconductor industry posted during the same period, according to IC Insights.
Excluding Intel, the group would have shown a 29% on-year jump in sales, said IC Insights.
Fourteen of the top-15 companies had semiconductor sales of at least US$3 billion in the first quarter of 2021, IC Insights noted.
There were two new entrants into the top-15 ranking - MediaTek and AMD, IC Insights said. MediaTek and AMD replaced HiSilicon and Sony in the top-15 listing.
HiSilicon, which was ranked 12th in the top-15 sales ranking in the first quarter of 2020, is the semiconductor design division of China-based telecommunications giant Huawei with over 90% of the company's sales going to its parent company. However, US sanctions on Huawei/HiSilicon terminated the ability of HiSilicon to purchase ICs from its primary foundry TSMC beginning in the fourth quarter of 2020, IC Insights indicated.
AMD's sales climbed 93% on year in the first quarter of 2021, the highest growth rate of any of the top-15 companies, to move up seven spots in the ranking and into 11th place, IC Insights said. MediaTek also posted an incredible year-over-year sales increase of 90% in the first quarter of 2021, and jumped up six positions into 10th place.
Thirteen of the top-15 semiconductor companies registered a double-digit year-over-year sales increase in the first quarter of 2021, while only one company - Intel - displayed a decline, IC Insights said.
The top-15 worldwide semiconductor (IC and OSD - optoelectronic, sensor and discrete) sales ranking for the first quarter of 2021 includes eight suppliers headquartered in the US, two each in South Korea, Taiwan and Europe, and one in Japan. The ranking includes six fabless companies (Qualcomm, Broadcom, Nvidia, MediaTek, AMD and Apple) and one pure-play foundry (TSMC). If pure-play foundry TSMC was excluded from the ranking, Europe-based IDM NXP would have been ranked 15th in the first-quarter 2021 listing, IC Insights indicated.
