In view of the ongoing production capacity shortage in the semiconductor industry and the resultant price hike of chips, revenue of the top 10 IC design companies for 2Q21 reached US$29.8 billion, a 60.8% YoY increase, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. In particular, Taiwanese companies put up remarkable performances during this period, with both MediaTek and Novatek posting YoY growths of more than 95%. AMD, on the other hand, experienced a nearly 100% YoY revenue growth, the highest among the top 10.
While foundry capacities remained tight, prompting IC design companies to compete over limited foundry capacities in order to fulfill rising demand for various end devices, the top 10 IC designe (fabless) companies posted remarkable revenues in 1Q21, according to TrendForce’s latest investigations. In particular, thanks to the global mining craze brought about by the cryptocurrency market, Nvidia was able to surpass Broadcom in revenue and take the second spot among the top 10. On the other hand, fifth-ranked AMD scored a staggering YoY growth of 92.9%, which is the highest % increase on the top 10 list.
Apple’s release of the iPhone 12, which has been popular in the consumer markets, led to soaring demand for Qualcomm’s 5G modems and RF chips, in turn propelling Qualcomm’s revenues past that of its rival Broadcom once again to clinch the number one spot in the revenue ranking of global top 10 IC design (fabless) companies for 3Q20, according to TrendForce’s latest investigations.
As consumer market demand gradually recovers, global automobile shipment is expected to reach 83.5 million units in 2021, according to TrendForce’s latest investigations. As well, component procurement activities from major automakers and tier 1 suppliers have generated an increase in automotive semiconductor demand in 4Q20. Global automotive IC revenue is expected to reach US$18.67 billion in 2020 and $21 billion in 2021, a 12.5% increase YoY.
On October 27, AMD announced that it had reached an agreement with leading FPGA manufacturer Xilinx to acquire the latter for US$35 billion. Should the acquisition proceed as planned, AMD will greatly increase its influence across industries such as 5G, data center, ADAS (advanced driver-assistance systems), and industrial automation, in turn overtaking MediaTek in revenue and becoming the fourth largest IC design company behind third-place Nvidia, according to TrendForce’s latest investigations. Furthermore, as AMD and Xilinx are both major clients of TSMC, AMD will command increased leverage when negotiating for TSMC’s foundry services following the Xilinx acquisition.
According to the revenue ranking of top ten IC design companies for 2Q20 compiled by TrendForce, Broadcom was able to capture number one position by surpassing Qualcomm in quarterly revenue. Despite strong demand for 5G products driven by WFH and distance education needs, Qualcomm’s upward momentum in 2Q20 was constrained due to the delayed release of Apple’s latest iPhones.
According to the 1Q20 revenue ranking of global top 10 IC design companies compiled from TrendForce’s latest data, Qualcomm was able to stop the trend of continuous YoY revenue declines, which lasted for the six previous consecutive quarters, because of its effective 5G product strategy and the considerable growth in WFH and distance learning demand. On the other hand, Broadcom’s semiconductor business displayed negative growth for five consecutive quarters because of market competition and the China-U.S. trade war, subsequently trading places with Qualcomm on the revenue ranking list in 1Q20.
The latest investigations from TrendForce finds that the top three IC design companies in 2019, Broadcom, Qualcomm, and NVIDIA, all exhibited decreased YoY revenues, significantly impacting global IC design revenue. Whether the industry can return to a state of growth will depend on whether the U.S. Department of Commerce expands its export restrictions and whether the COVID-19 pandemic can be sufficiently contained.
The newest analysis from TrendForce shows that several U.S.-based IC design companies experienced continually expanding losses in 3Q19 revenue because of the ongoing China-U.S. trade war and because Huawei had yet to be removed from the Entity List. Of the U.S.-based companies, Qualcomm demonstrated the greatest revenue loss with a 22% decline.