The chips are down, but still very hot

• Global semiconductor revenues dipped very slightly on a sequential basis in the first quarter of this year
• It was the first quarter-on-quarter decline in revenues in two years
• But revenues in Q1 2022 were still the second highest on record at $159.3bn
• Samsung is now the largest chip vendor by revenues, ahead of Intel

Global semiconductor revenues dipped sequentially in the first quarter of 2022 – the first quarter-on-quarter decline in two years – but total market sales, at $159.3bn, were still the second highest ever on record, according to research house Omdia.

The sequential decline was tiny – down 0.03% from the $159.35bn in revenues generated by chip firms in the fourth quarter of 2021 – but it was the first time since the first quarter of 2020 that the value of global chips hadn’t increased on a sequential basis.

"Total semiconductor revenue has been growing each quarter since Q2 2020, and the market set new total revenue records each quarter beginning with Q4 2020. But the market broke both those streaks in Q1 2022, declining for the first time since Q1 2020," stated Omdia senior research analyst Cliff Leimbach, who is author of the research company’s Semiconductor Competitive Landscape (CLT) Spotlight Service.

The analyst also noted in this Omdia announcement that seasonal market factors usually lead to a sequential decline in global chip revenues in the first quarter of each year, but that the decline, on average, is usually 4.4% – far steeper than the tiny dip in the first quarter of this year.  

Samsung was the largest chip vendor by revenues ($20.16bn) in the first quarter of this year, ahead of Intel ($17.83bn): Samsung snatched Intel’s revenue market share crown in the fourth quarter of 2021. Omdia noted that AMD climbed the chip revenues ranking table to sixth place from eighth, courtesy of its acquisition of Xilinx – see chart, below.

Chip firms have been capitalising on the global shortage of semiconductors, coupled with high demand, over the past 18 months by increasing their prices, a strategy that has resulted in the steadily increasing value of the global chip sector

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV