US chipmaker Intel Corp is expected to regain its position as the world’s largest semiconductor supplier by sales this year, two years after losing the crown to Samsung Electronics Co, IC Insights said yesterday.
Intel is forecast to post sales of US$69.83 billion, little changed from last year, but more than enough to surpass Samsung, which is expected to see sales plunge 29 percent to US$55.61 billion due to slumping memorychip prices, IC Insights said.
The global memorychip market is forecast to nosedive 34 percent this year from a year ago, the US researcher said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest foundry company, would improve its ranking by one notch to No. 3, on sales of US$34.5 billion, up 1 percent from last year, IC Insights projected.
SK Hynix Inc, the world’s No. 2 memorychip maker last year, would drop to fourth this year, as its sales are expected to plummet 38 percent to US$22.29 billion, down from US$36.77 billion last year, while Micron Technology Co’s sales are forecast to fall 35 percent to US$19.96 billion, ranking fifth, the researcher’s tallies showed.
Taiwanese chip designer Media-Tek Inc (聯發科) is to take the 15th spot this year, down one place from last year, as it is to see sales grow just 1 percent to US$7.95 billion from last year’s US$7.89 billion, IC Insights said.
TSMC is the only pure foundry on the top 15 list.
If the firm is excluded from the ranking, China’s Hisilicon Technologies Co (海思半導體) would move into 15th, on sales of US$7.5 billion, up 24 percent from last year, IC Insights said.
Hisilicon is the chip designing arm of Huawei Technologies Co (華為).
Overall, the world’s top 15 semiconductor companies are to see combined sales fall 15 percent to US$314.89 billion this year from US$369.35 billion last year, IC Insights forecast.
The contraction would be deeper than the global semiconductor industry’s forecast annual decline of 13 percent, the researcher said.
Sweeping policy changes under US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr are having a chilling effect on vaccine makers as anti-vaccine rhetoric has turned into concrete changes in inoculation schedules and recommendations, investors and executives said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has in the past year upended vaccine recommendations, with the country last month ending its longstanding guidance that all children receive inoculations against flu, hepatitis A and other diseases. The unprecedented changes have led to diminished vaccine usage, hurt the investment case for some biotechs, and created a drag that would likely dent revenues and
Macronix International Co (旺宏), the world’s biggest NOR flash memory supplier, yesterday said it would spend NT$22 billion (US$699.1 million) on capacity expansion this year to increase its production of mid-to-low-density memory chips as the world’s major memorychip suppliers are phasing out the market. The company said its planned capital expenditures are about 11 times higher than the NT$1.8 billion it spent on new facilities and equipment last year. A majority of this year’s outlay would be allocated to step up capacity of multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory chips, which are used in embedded multimedia cards (eMMC), a managed
CULPRITS: Factors that affected the slip included falling global crude oil prices, wait-and-see consumer attitudes due to US tariffs and a different Lunar New Year holiday schedule Taiwan’s retail sales ended a nine-year growth streak last year, slipping 0.2 percent from a year earlier as uncertainty over US tariff policies affected demand for durable goods, data released on Friday by the Ministry of Economic Affairs showed. Last year’s retail sales totaled NT$4.84 trillion (US$153.27 billion), down about NT$9.5 billion, or 0.2 percent, from 2024. Despite the decline, the figure was still the second-highest annual sales total on record. Ministry statistics department deputy head Chen Yu-fang (陳玉芳) said sales of cars, motorcycles and related products, which accounted for 17.4 percent of total retail rales last year, fell NT$68.1 billion, or
In the wake of strong global demand for AI applications, Taiwan’s export-oriented economy accelerated with the composite index of economic indicators flashing the first “red” light in December for one year, indicating the economy is in booming mode, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Moreover, the index of leading indicators, which gauges the potential state of the economy over the next six months, also moved higher in December amid growing optimism over the outlook, the NDC said. In December, the index of economic indicators rose one point from a month earlier to 38, at the lower end of the “red” light.
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