Austin, Texas, USA, March 4, 2025
Futurum’s Recent Analysis of 2024 Semiconductor Company Performance Shows the Impact of the Boom in AI Spending, With the Top 10 Companies Posting a Combined Annual Growth of 45.4%
According to the Worldwide Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS), the total semiconductor revenue in 2024 was estimated at $627.5B, which represented a growth of 19.1% over the $526.9B estimated for 2023.
However, Semiconductors can no longer be seen as a homogeneous market. Behind the headline growth figure for 2024 was a story of two very different semiconductor markets, one driven by the growth in data center infrastructure investment to support the boom in AI and the other exposed to lower growth segments such as PCs, smartphones, Automotive, and Industrial.
As shown in Figure 1, this two-speed growth in 2024 was to concentrate two-thirds of semiconductor revenue within the top 10, up from a little more than half in 2023.
Figure 1: Top 10 Semiconductor Vendors Market Share, Worldwide, 2024
Richard Gordon, VP & Practice Lead for Semiconductors at Futurum said, “The stark contrast in fortunes between those semiconductor companies exposed to the boom in data center AI infrastructure spending on the one hand and the rest of the market on the other can be seen all too clearly in the top 10 semiconductor ranking by revenue. What’s even more astonishing is that almost all (approximately 90%) of the combined increase of $131.6 in top 10 company semiconductor revenue was due to just four companies: the three large memory vendors and NVIDIA.”
Key findings from the report:
- The combined total semiconductor revenue growth of the top 10 vendors was an estimated 45.4% in 2024 compared to the rest of the market, where total semiconductor vendor revenue declined by an estimated 13.0% overall.
- The top 10 features the three largest memory vendors – Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, and Micron – all of whom posted huge double-digit revenue growth, thanks in part to the rapid market adoption of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) by data centers.
- The impact of AI on the semiconductor market in 2024 is exemplified most notably by the performance of NVIDIA, whose semiconductor revenue more than doubled as demand for its AI chipsets exploded.
“One striking thing about the companies in 2024’s top 10 is that none of them are traditional, broad-line semiconductor vendors,” noted Gordon. “While it’s true that the trend these days for all types of semiconductor companies is to specialize in technology expertise and market focus, there are still large and influential semiconductor companies recognized as broad liners that act as a barometer for the state of the semiconductor market overall. In 2024, these broadline companies saw revenues decline, telling a story of weak demand and inventory backlogs across the PC, Smartphone, Automotive, and Industrial sectors.”
Read more in the report: “State of the Market Report: Semiconductors, Q1 2025”
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Other insights from The Futurum Group:
Nvidia Q4 FY 2025: AI Momentum Strengthens Despite Margin Pressures
Is OpenAI’s First Foray into Semiconductor Design a Threat to NVIDIA?
Lattice Semiconductor Sees Stabilization Signs Despite Q4 FY 2024 Revenue Decline
Author Information
Richard Gordon is Vice President & Practice Lead, Semiconductors for The Futurum Group. He has been involved in the semiconductor industry for more than 30 years, first in engineering and then in technology and market research, industry analysis, and business advisory.
For many years, Richard led Gartner's Semiconductor and Electronics practice, building a 20-person global team covering all aspects of semiconductor industry research, from manufacturing to chip markets and end applications. Having served on Gartner's Senior Research Board and as Gartner's Chief Forecaster, Richard has extensive experience in developing and implementing methodologies for market sizing, share and forecasting, to deliver data, analysis and insights about the competitive landscape, technology roadmaps, and market growth drivers.
Richard is a sought-after technology industry analyst, both as a trusted advisor to clients and also as an expert commentator speaking at industry events and appearing on live TV shows such as CNBC.
