AI Boom Drives Global Semiconductor Revenue to US$626 Billion
Semiconductor revenue worldwide reached US$626 billion in 2024, marking an 18.1% increase from the previous year, according to preliminary figures from Gartner, Inc. Revenue is expected to rise further to US$705 billion in 2025.
The semiconductor industry’s strong performance was largely driven by demand for artificial intelligence (AI) processors and graphics processing units (GPUs), particularly for data centre applications such as servers and accelerator cards.
“AI and generative AI (GenAI) workloads fuelled substantial growth in the semiconductor sector, making data centres the second-largest market after smartphones,” stated George Brocklehurst, VP Analyst at Gartner. “Revenue from data centre semiconductors rose to US$112 billion in 2024, a sharp increase from US$64.8 billion in 2023.”
Samsung Reclaims No. 1 Spot in the Global Semiconductor Market
The strong market growth reshaped the rankings of major semiconductor vendors. Nine of the top ten companies recorded revenue growth, with eleven vendors experiencing double-digit increases. Meanwhile, only eight of the top 25 saw a decline in revenue.
Samsung Electronics regained its position as the world’s leading semiconductor vendor, overtaking Intel. The company’s revenue surged to US$66.5 billion in 2024, driven by a rebound in memory device prices. Intel, despite modest growth in its x86 business and the introduction of AI PCs and Core Ultra chipsets, slipped to second place with flat revenue at US$49.2 billion.
Nvidia experienced extraordinary growth, increasing its semiconductor revenue by 84% to US$46 billion. This surge, fuelled by the booming AI market, propelled the company into third place. SK hynix followed closely, with an 86% revenue increase to US$42.8 billion.
Memory Revenue Soars, Led by High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM)
Memory revenue saw a remarkable 71.8% increase in 2024, raising its share of the total semiconductor market to 25.2%. Dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) revenue grew by 75.4%, while NAND flash revenue jumped by 75.7% year-over-year.
High-bandwidth memory (HBM) played a key role in driving DRAM market growth. HBM revenue accounted for 13.6% of total DRAM sales in 2024 and is expected to expand further.
“Memory and AI semiconductors will remain key drivers of market growth,” Brocklehurst added. “HBM’s share of DRAM revenue is projected to reach 19.2% in 2025, with revenue increasing by 66.3% to US$19.8 billion.”
Non-memory semiconductor revenue grew by 6.9% in 2024, maintaining a dominant 74.8% share of the total market.
With AI and high-performance computing continuing to accelerate semiconductor demand, the industry is poised for another strong year in 2025.
