Technological research and consulting firm Gartner Inc found that the global semiconductor industry experienced a setback in 2023 with a marked 11.1% decline in revenue totalling US$533 billion (RM2.51 trillion) compared to the previous year.
Gartner, in a statement, said the top 25 companies make up 74.4% of market revenue in 2023, down from 77.2% in 2022 and the combined semiconductor revenue of the top 25 vendors witnessed a substantial 14.1% decline for the same period.
Gartner vice president Alan Priestley said: “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.”
“This downturn also had a negative impact on several semiconductor vendors, with only nine out of the top 25 vendors posting revenue growth, while 10 experienced double-digit declines,” Priestley added.
Gartner’s findings cited in 2023, Intel regained its No 1 position in semiconductor revenue, surpassing Samsung, while Nvidia entered the top five with a 56.4% growth, driven by artificial intelligence (AI) silicon dominance.
STMicroelectronics secured the No 8 spot, with a 7.7% revenue increase fuelled by strength in the automotive sector, the firm said.
For the memory product, the revenue has declined 37% in 2023, primarily attributed to weaker-than-expected demand and excess channel inventory in smartphones, personal computers and servers.
Dynamic random access memory segment revenue decreased by 38.5% to US$48.4 billion and NAND flash revenue declined by 37.5% to US$36.2 billion, Gartner said.
However, for the non-memory product, the revenue fared better and declined at a smaller quantum of 3% in 2023, benefitting from a comparatively stable pricing environment, with the demand for non-memory semiconductors driven by growth in AI applications, electric vehicles, and the defence and aerospace industries, it added.
