Given the wave of consolidation in the semiconductor industry in recent years, the trend of the market focusing on the hands of a few manufacturers has become increasingly apparent. It does not seem so surprising.
According to the latest report from IC Insights, a market research organization, the combined sales of the top five semiconductor suppliers in the world accounted for about 43% of the overall market in 2017; this figure was increased by 10% compared with a decade ago. The agency pointed out that last year the world's top five chip suppliers (excluding foundries) were in order: Samsung, Intel, SK Hynix, Micron, and Broadcom.
Among the top five semiconductor suppliers, memory manufacturers accounted for most of them. It can be seen that the astonishing performance of the memory industry in 2017 also “contributed” the trend that the market concentrated in the hands of a few more companies. Samsung, Hynix and Micron’s sales growth rate in 2017 are both More than 50%, mainly because the DRAM and NAND flash memory market grew by 77% and 47% respectively.
The upsurge of the memory market will eventually subside, and most market observers expect the growth of the market to slow this year. However, IC Insights believes that the “integration and madness” of the IC industry will continue to increase the market share of leading chip manufacturers. Raise to a higher level.
The trend of the big chip market and the large-scale consolidation are actually the products of the same thing: that is, the difference between the 'rich man' and the 'poor boy' in the semiconductor industry.
Rob Lineback, senior analyst at IC Insights, said in an interview with EE Times that the increase in the market share of large chip suppliers is also due to 'large companies often have deep pockets and financial resources, and can continue to keep technology costs high. Expand market and grow, and survive in areas where small and medium-sized chip makers may be difficult to compete for a long time.
According to Lineback, the IC market is concentrated in the hands of a few manufacturers. It was a reversal of the industrial ecology that began to boom in the 1980s. At that time, the fabless semiconductor company and the foundry's cooperation model rose, making the number of small and medium-sized chip design companies. Increase; and now the situation is back to the early 1970s IC industry development, when the world's top five to ten chip manufacturers also occupy most of the market, those manufacturers are large vertical integration electronics manufacturers.
Lineback said: "We believe that after the mid-1980s, more chip vendors seized the market because of the success of the fabless campaign. About twenty years later, we began to see the launch of larger chip vendors. The consolidation and expansion of the market are due to the higher cost of competition in many areas and the rise of industry mergers and acquisitions in ten years.
Compilation: Judith Cheng