IHS Markit pointed out that Nvidia’s total sales in 2017 was US$8.57 billion, which is enough to make the company ranked the world’s tenth largest chip supplier; but Len Jelinek, director of IHS technology, media and telecommunications department and chief analyst, said that the rise of Nvidia allows Taiwan's fabless chip designer MediaTek fell out of the top ten list.
Qualcomm, Nvidia, and MediaTek are the only fabless chip suppliers in the world's top ten list of chip suppliers that have ever entered the world's top ten; MediaTek had entered the world in 2014 and 2016. The top ten chip supplier list, Qualcomm entered the top ten for the first time in 2007 and remains on the list.
Overall, global semiconductor sales grew by 21.% in 2017 to reach a record high of US$429.2 billion; this is the highest annual growth rate for the industry in the last 14 years.
Most of the chip industry’s sales growth in 2017 came from the sales performance of memory products; the memory market’s sales in 2017 increased by 60.8% compared to 2016. In addition to memory, the average sales of other types of components of the semiconductor industry last year grew by 9.9%. The main reason is what IHS calls "solid unit-sales growth" and the strong demand across all application areas, regional markets and technology categories.
Craig Stice, senior director of IHS Markit's memory and storage market, said in a press statement that NAND prices that have risen in 2017 are expected to decline this year.
"In 2018, the 3D NAND conversion rate will account for almost three quarters of the total NAND output, and it is expected to relieve the strong demand from the SSD and mobile phone markets." Stice said: "Prices are expected to begin to drop substantially, but NAND in 2018 The market may still set a record high."