Intel top as semiconductor market's worldwide revenue falls 11% in 2023

The worldwide semiconductor market saw revenues fall to a total of $533 billion, down 11.1% compared to 2022. The analyst firm Gartner said that Intel took back the number one spot in the market from Korean company Samsung.

One of the big differences that we saw in 2023 compared to prior years was the massive increase in popularity of generative AI. This greatly benefited NVIDIA’s semiconductor business as it sells AI chips for servers which process the generative AI applications.

The rapid rise of generative AI saw NVIDIA raise its revenue from $15.33 billion in 2022 to $23.98 billion in 2023. This sent it from rank 12 in the semiconductor market to fifth place.

Another notable company was STMicroelectronics as it moved up the revenue leaderboard three slots into eighth place. In 2023, its revenue rose by 7.7% due to its strong position in the automotive segment.

While Intel did manage to top the market, it also saw a decline in revenue from $58.43 billion in 2022 to $48.66 billion in 2023. Reclaiming the top place was more to do with Samsung recording a big 37.5% reduction in revenue

“While the cyclicality in the semiconductor industry was present again in 2023, the market suffered a difficult year with memory revenue recording one of its worst declines in history,” said Alan Priestley, VP Analyst at Gartner. “The underperforming market also negatively impacted several semiconductor vendors. Only 9 of the top 25 semiconductor vendors posted revenue growth in 2023, with 10 experiencing double-digit declines.”

The fact that the semiconductor market saw lower revenue is not surprising given the levels of inflation and the higher interest rates which make credit more expensive. If interest rates get cut in 2024 or 2025 that could give the semiconductor market a boost back to growth.

Source: Gartner

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