Semiconductor revenue up 31 percent: Gartner

Worldwide semiconductor revenue grew by 31 percent last year and Intel held the top spot for the 19th consecutive year although its market share dipped slightly, technology research company Gartner said Monday.

The Stamford, Connecticut-based Gartner said worldwide semiconductor revenue increased by 30.9 percent in 2010 over the previous year to $299.4 billion, the largest dollar increase ever for the industry, Gartner said.

The top 25 semiconductor suppliers accounted for 69.1 percent of industry revenue in 2010, Gartner said, with memory vendors showing the most growth.

Intel held a 14 percent share of the market, down down from 14.6 percent in 2009, Gartner said. The US computer chip giant's revenue grew by 25.6 percent to $41.9 billion.

Samsung Electronics was next with a 9.4 percent share of the market and revenue growth of 58.3 percent to $28.1 billion, largely due to strong sales of DRAM and NAND flash memory, which accounted for about 80 percent of the South Korean company's sales.

Japan's Toshiba's held a 4.1 percent share of the market and saw semiconductor revenue grow by 28.7 percent last year to $12.4 billion.

Rounding out the top five were Texas Instruments and STMicroelectronics.

"The industrywide upturn was due to the combination of pent-up demand that had built in the wake of the worldwide economic recession, and rebuilding of semiconductor inventories that were significantly depleted during the recession and early recovery," Gartner principal analyst Peter Middleton said.

"The market began to surge in the second half of 2009, as demand recovery in a variety of market sectors resulted in strong order rates," Middleton said in a statement.

(c) 2011 AFP