The world’s 10 biggest chip manufacturing firms saw their earnings rise to a record high in the first half of 2021, according to market research firm TrendForce.
The combined quarterly total sales of the chipmakers, known as foundries, jumped to a record high of $22.75 billion.
Chips are used everywhere from a card, washing machines, games consoles, and toothbrushes. They form part of the lifeblood of the worldwide economy and are crucial to many of the world’s biggest industries.
“Owing to soaring demands for various end devices, manufacturers have been ramping up their component procurement activities, and foundry capacities, as a result, have been in shortage since 2020, with various foundries raising their wafer prices and adjusting their product mixes to ensure profitability,” TrendForce analyst Joanne Chiao wrote.
The U.S. and the EU said they want to be more self-standing when it comes to semiconductors as the big majority of the world’s chips are made in Asia.
“The revenue from the 7nm foundry service has kept climbing at a stable pace thanks to orders from AMD, MediaTek, and Qualcomm,” Chiao said, adding that sales are up 23% on the last quarter.
The sales for 12nm and 16nm chips have “grown on account of the demand related to MediaTek’s 5G RF transceivers and Bitmain’s cryptocurrency mining machines,” TrendForce added. However, sales of (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) TSMC’s 5nm chips saw a quarterly decline, and adding to that Chiao said that the main cause is due to Apple “entered the off-season for device production.”
The South Korean multinational Samsung saw its sales drop 2% in the last quarter to $ 4.1 billion.
TrendForce expects the chip companies to see further sales increase as the prices of the chip wafers they produce continue to increase and demand persists.
It said the quarterly total revenue of the top 10 foundries will “once again reach a historical high” by undergoing a 1-3% rise quarter-on-quarter for the second quarter of 2021.
