Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) share of the global foundry market rose to almost 70 percent last year amid booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI), market information advisory firm TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said on Thursday.
The contract chipmaker posted US$122.54 billion in revenue, up 36.1 percent from a year earlier, accounting for 69.9 percent of the global market, TrendForce said.
Its share was up from 64.4 percent in 2024, it said.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA
TSMC’s closest rival, Samsung Electronics, was a distant second, posting US$12.63 billion in sales, down 3.9 percent from a year earlier, for a 7.2 percent share of the global market.
In the fourth quarter of last year alone, TSMC’s share of the global foundry market was 70.4 percent, down from 71.0 percent in the third quarter, although its sales rose 2 percent from a quarter earlier to US$33.72 billion.
Although TSMC’s shipments in the October-to-December period fell slightly from a quarter earlier, strong demand for its 3-nanometer process pushed average selling prices higher, boosting revenue, TrendForce said.
The global foundry market’s 10 largest firms generated US$169.47 billion in combined sales last year, up 26.3 percent from a year earlier.
China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) ranked third with US$9.33 billion in sales, or a 5.32 percent market share, ahead of Taiwan’s United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) with US$7.63 billion, or 4.35 percent, and US-based GlobalFoundries with US$6.79 billion, or 3.87 percent.
Huahong Group (華虹) of China was sixth with US$4.50 billion (2.6 percent).
Rounding out the top 10 were: Israel’s Tower Semiconductor Ltd (US$1.57 billion, 0.89 percent), Taiwan’s Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進, US$1.56 billion, 0.89 percent), China’s NexChip Co (合晶集成, US$1.51 billion, 0.86 percent), and Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電, US$1.40 billion, 0.80 percent).
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