- HiSilicon is based in China whereas Apple is headquartered in USA
- HiSilicon’s year-over-year sales surged 54 per cent in 1Q20
The top-10 semiconductor companies’ sales surged by 16 per cent in 1Q20 compared to 1Q19, more than twice the total worldwide semiconductor industry 1Q20/1Q19 increase of seven per cent. According to a latest report by IC Insights, nine of the top-10 companies had sales of at least $ three billion in 1Q20, one company more than in 1Q19.
“It took almost $2.7 billion in quarterly sales just to make it into the 1Q20 top-10 semiconductor supplier list,” read the report.
Two new entrants into the top-10
There were two new entrants into the top-10 ranking in 1Q20, HiSilicon and Nvidia. These two companies replaced Infineon and Kioxia in the top-10 listing.
HiSilicon is the semiconductor design division of China based telecommunications giant Huawei. Over 90 per cent of HiSilicon’s sales go to its parent company. China-based fab less IC supplier HiSilicon jumped up five spots in the ranking to 10th place, making it the first China-based semiconductor supplier to be ranked in the worldwide top-10 listing.
HiSilicon’s year-over-year sales surged 54 per cent in 1Q20. Nvidia also posted a solid year-over-year sales increase of 37 per cent in 1Q20.
TSMC making waves
The top-10 ranking includes one pure-play foundry, TSMC, which registered a strong 45 per cent 1Q20/1Q19 jump in revenue. Much of this increase was due to a surge in sales of 7nm application processors to Apple and HiSilicon for their respective smartphones.
HiSilicon, as per the report, has become an increasingly important customer for TSMC. It represented 14 per cent of its sales last year, up from holding only a five per cent share in 2017. It is interesting to note that HiSilicon and Apple combined to represent 37 per cent of TSMC’s total sales in 2019.
