Worldwide semiconductor revenue grew 18% in 2024
Worldwide semiconductor revenue in 2024 totalled $626 billion, an increase of 18.1% from 2024, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. Revenue is projected to total $705 billion in 2025.
“Graphics processing units (GPUs) and AI processors used in data centre applications (servers and accelerator cards) were the key drivers for the chip sector in 2024,” said George Brocklehurst, VP Analyst at Gartner. “The rising demand for AI and generative AI (GenAI) workloads led data centres to become the second-largest market for semiconductors in 2024, behind smartphones. Data centre semiconductor revenue totalled $112 billion in 2024, up from $64.8 billion in 2023.”
The positive performance of the overall market impacted the ranking of several semiconductor vendors. Eleven vendors experienced double-digit growth and only 8 of the top 25 semiconductor vendors posted revenue decline in 2024.
Samsung Electronics Regained No. 1 Spot in 2024
With 9 out of the top 10 semiconductor vendors recording revenue growth in 2024, the ranking of the top 10 semiconductor vendors changed year-over-year (see Table 1).
Samsung Electronics reclaimed the No.1 spot from Intel and extended its lead over the company in 2024 driven by a strong rebound in memory device prices. Samsung Electronics revenue totalled $66.5 billion in 2024.
Intel moved to the No. 2 position as its product set — AI PCs and the Core Ultra chipset — was insufficient to offset the limited success of its AI accelerator offering and the modest growth in its x86 business. Intel’s semiconductor revenue was flat at 0.1% growth in 2024.
Nvidia continued to perform exceptionally well, increasing its semiconductor revenue by 84% in 2024, to total $46 billion. It moved up two spots to secure the No. 3 position thanks to the strength of its AI business.
HBM to Represent 19.2% of DRAM Revenue in 2025, Up from 13.6% in 2024
Memory revenue recorded 71.8% revenue growth in 2024. Memory’s share as a percentage of total semiconductor sales increased to 25.2% in 2024. DRAM revenue improved 75.4% in 2024 while NAND revenue increased 75.7% year-over-year. High-bandwidth memory (HBM) production contributed significantly to the revenue for DRAM vendors. HBM revenue represented 13.6% of total DRAM revenue in 2024.
Nonmemory revenue increased 6.9% in 2024. Nonmemory accounted for 74.8% of total semiconductor revenue in 2024.
“Memory and AI semiconductors will drive near-term growth, with HBM projected to account for an increasing share of DRAM revenue, reaching 19.2% in 2025,” said Brocklehurst. “HBM revenue is estimated to increase 66.3% in 2025, reaching $19.8 billion.”
