This was followed by MediaTek ($1.694 billion), AMD ($1.647 billion), Xilinx ($673 million), Marvell ($605 million), Realtek ($362 million), United Technologies ($357 million). ) and Dialog (3.32 billion U.S. dollars).
Qualcomm and MediaTek have not performed well in the first quarter
In response to Qualcomm and MediaTek, who are most concerned about the market, Yao Jiayang, an analyst at Tuoba Industries Research Institute, pointed out that since the end of 2017, due to the unsatisfactory new machine sales and rising channel inventory, the traditional off-season in the first quarter was reported earlier. Big handset manufacturers have a relatively conservative attitude towards the market in 2018, which has affected the order status of the two major mobile phone chip plants in the first quarter of this year.
Among them, although Qualcomm delivered a record of US$3.897 billion in the first quarter of this year, compared with the record of more than US$4 billion for three consecutive quarters in the second quarter of 2017, Qualcomm’s performance was clearly not excellent.
MediaTek’s performance in the first quarter of this year was also not ideal. Revenue has experienced an annual recession for four consecutive quarters. However, observing the revenue performance in the past three quarters, its gross profit margin has gradually stabilized. The gross profit rate in the first quarter reached 38.4%. Part of the reason is that the P60 processor adopts a 12-nanometer process, which has a competitive advantage in the market. In addition, the large-scale plants of OPPO and other manufacturers have adopted the P60 to introduce a new generation of high-end models. Although the initial shipment volume is limited, the overall gross profit rate has increased. Still helpful. However, since the P60 was released in the first quarter of this year, to achieve a significant revenue contribution for MediaTek, the results should be seen as quickly as possible in the second quarter.
As for the development of the two vendors in the second quarter, Yao Jiayang believed that because Qualcomm's new generation of Xiaolong 700 series processors still has no further news, it may affect the development of high-end models of major handset manufacturers in this year. It is possible to strengthen the positive layout of P60 on the client and strengthen technical support to key customers without affecting the gross profit margin. Qualcomm’s financial performance in the second quarter may be affected a little.
AMD and NVIDIA Benefit From Global Mining Enthusiasm
As can be seen from the top ten list, AMD and NVIDIA have performed the best. The revenue of the two companies in the first quarter increased by 67.4% and 50.6% respectively year-on-year.
Yao Jiayang believes that AMD has several reasons for this performance: First, the growth momentum of its computing and mapping business group is very strong, with a year-on-year increase of 88%, which drives overall revenue growth. Second, AMD did not perform well in the same period last year. Finally, as the global demand for mining is still hot, the demand for a new generation of graphics chips has been driven. Not only did AMD's growth rate in the first quarter stand out, but net profit also hit a new high in four years, reaching US$81 million.
NVIDIA has always maintained a high growth performance. Yao Jiayang pointed out that NVIDIA is mainly driven by the game and server market. Among them, game revenue reached US$1.728 billion and servers were US$669 million, a year-on-year increase of 52.4. % with 80.3%.
It is worth mentioning that the latest quarter's financial report shows that there are 289 million US dollars in OEM business revenue from virtual currency, showing that the global mining boom for the graphics chip makers, really benefited a lot.
Looking into the performance of the top 10 IC design companies in the second quarter of 2018, Yao Jiayang believes that the top five should not change much, but the sixth to tenth names may change. It is worth noting that As Marvell has decided to acquire Cavium, it will further improve the completeness of the programs in the Netcom and server sectors. Since the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2016, Cavium's revenue has been in the range of 2 billion to 2.5 billion U.S. dollars. With Cavium's revenue included in the second quarter of this year, Marvell will have the opportunity to overtake Xilinx and win the sixth place.