Samsung To Lose No. 1 Semiconductor Supplier Rank To Intel In 2019: Report

Samsung to lose No. 1 semiconductor supplier rank to Intel in 2019: report

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. will relinquish its top semiconductor supplier rank to U.S. chipmaker Intel Corp. this year due to the weak memory chip market, an industry report showed Tuesday

SEOUL, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 19th Nov, 2019 ):South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. will relinquish its top semiconductor supplier rank to U.S. chipmaker Intel Corp. this year due to the weak memory chip market, an industry report showed Tuesday.

The top-15 semiconductor companies' sales are forecast to drop by 15 percent this year to US$314.9 billion compared to 2018, and memory suppliers were poised for deeper declines this year, according to the market researcher IC Insights.

Korean chipmaker Samsung Electronics Co.'s semiconductor sales were expected to tumble 29 percent on-year to $55.6 billion in 2019, falling behind U.S. chip giant Intel Corp.'s $69.8 billion annual revenue estimate, IC Insights said.

Samsung's semiconductor sales heavily rely on memory devices, such as DRAM and NAND flash, which had an industry downturn following a two-year boom, while Intel is a leader in computer chips. Intel held the No. 1 semiconductor maker title from 1993 through 2016.

"With a forecasted 34 percent drop in the memory market this year, Intel is once again expected to rank as the largest semiconductor supplier and have sales that are 26 percent larger than Samsung in 2019," IC Insights said in a report.

SK hynix Inc., the world's second-largest memory chipmaker, was set to move down one notch to fourth place in the semiconductor rankings following Taiwanese foundry leader TSMC Ltd., it noted.