In the booming field of artificial intelligence, memory chip manufacturers are emerging as key beneficiaries alongside chip developers for computational accelerators. In the first quarter, SK hynix saw a revenue increase of 144.3%, securing its position as the third-largest chip producer. Intel remains in second place, while Samsung Electronics leads with a 78.8% rise in revenue.
Despite Samsung’s prolonged struggle to obtain certification for its HBM3 and HBM3E memory chips from Nvidia, the company has still managed to supply previous generations of HBM memory to various market players. The overall recovery in memory demand significantly boosted Samsung’s revenue to $14.9 billion.
According to IDC, high prices for HBM chips have accelerated revenue growth for memory manufacturers. HBM chips are priced four to five times higher than traditional DRAM, and the shift in production lines from DRAM to HBM has also driven up the cost of standard DDR memory. Consequently, memory producers have captured a substantial share of semiconductor revenue.
In the top five chipmakers for the first quarter, three are memory manufacturers, including Micron, which secured the fourth spot with a 57.7% revenue increase to $5.8 billion. Memory producers account for half of the revenue among the top ten chip manufacturers. IDC’s report includes companies that both design and manufacture semiconductor products.
For the first quarter, 35% of the revenue from the top ten chipmakers came from the computing solutions sector, a six percentage point increase year-over-year. The telecommunications sector follows closely behind. The automotive segment is currently managing an excess of inventory following a pandemic-induced shortage, with expectations of renewed demand in the third quarter, particularly in conjunction with the industrial automation sector. IDC experts anticipate that memory manufacturers will continue to lead the IDM market in revenue growth throughout the year.
