Top five MPU suppliers strengthen market dominance

27 July 2022 Editor's Choice News

Despite economic troubles brewing this year, total microprocessor sales are expected to maintain their double-digit percentage growth in 2022, rising nearly 12% to a record-high $114.8 billion, thanks to higher average selling prices, according to IC Insights’ updated second-quarter semiconductor forecast.

Total MPU sales grew 13% in 2021 and climbed 16% in 2020, when the COVID-19 virus health crisis impacted the global economy but at the same time drove up microprocessor demand because of the need for more personal computers, smartphones, and internet connections during the pandemic.

IC Insights’ 2Q update to the 2022 McClean Report service shows total MPU shipments rising just 3% this year, which will lift unit volume to an all-time high of nearly 2,5 million processors following increases of 6% in 2021 and 5% in 2020. MPU revenues in 2022 are expected to get a boost from an 8% increase in average selling prices after prices grew 7% last year and 10% in 2020, states the report.

The ranking of the top five microprocessor suppliers (Intel, Apple, Qualcomm, AMD and MediaTek) was unchanged in 2021 compared to 2020, with their combined revenue values of MPUs shipped last year rising 15% to $88,3 billion. The combined 2021 market share of these five largest microprocessor suppliers reached 86% of the world’s total $102,7 billion MPU sales last year compared to 85,0% in 2020 and 82,1% in 2016.

While the combined market share of the top five suppliers has steadily increased in the past 10 years, the revenue gap between long-time MPU leader Intel and the rest of the four largest companies in the ranking continues to narrow. It is estimated that Intel’s 2021 microprocessor revenues grew just 3% to $52,3 billion, which was 50,9% of the total MPU market last year, compared to a 55,7% share in 2020 and 58,4% in 2016. Rival x86-processor supplier AMD saw its MPU sales surge 56% to $9,2 billion in 2021, grabbing revenue away from Intel and moving up its total microprocessor market share to 8,9% last year compared to 6,5% in 2020 and 3,3% in 2016 prior to the company’s dramatic turnaround in CPUs for PCs and server computers in the past five years.

The next five largest MPU suppliers, in 6th to 10th places in IC Insights’ ranking (Nvidia, Samsung, UNISOC, HiSilicon, and NXP), slipped slightly to collectively hold a 4,3% share of the 2021 total (or $4,4 billion) versus 5,0% in 2020.

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