Stefan Mileschin

Intel falls and Gartner crowns Samsung King

Chipzilla is no longer the king of chips and has been replaced by Samsung, according to Gartner group.

Beancounters at the analyst outfit Gartner have ruled that Samsung has beaten Intel to the semiconductor industry’s top spot for the first time and a hike in the memory market saw the outfit's memory revenues grow by $20 billion in 2017

The memory market alone increased by $50 billion to $130 billion and Samsung, the world’s largest memory chip producer, saw the most significant benefit. Samsung registered $59.9 billion in overall semiconductor revenues, or 14.2 percent of the market, compared with Intel’s $58.7 billion with a 14 percent share.

This is the first time in 25 years that Intel has not ruled the world’s top semiconductor maker with its iron claws.

For those with long memories, Intel took over from Japanese chip maker NEC, which had led the market since 1985. In 1990, six Japanese semiconductor companies were in the top 10, a figure that no country or region has matched since.

Worldwide revenue hit $420.4 billion last year, up 21.6 percent from 2016, Gartner said, with revenues breaking the $400 billion mark for the first time.

Gartner research director George Brocklehurst. said: " 2017 saw two semiconductor industry milestones – revenue surpassed $400bn, and Intel, the No. 1 vendor for the last 25 years, was pushed into second place by Samsung Electronics."

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