# Semiconductor industry

The semiconductor industry is the aggregate of companies engaged in the design and fabrication of semiconductors and semiconductor devices, such as transistors and integrated circuits. Its roots can be traced to the invention of the transistor by Shockley, Brattain, and Bardeen at Bell Labs in 1948. Bell Labs licensed the technology for $25,000, and soon many companies, including Motorola (1952), Schockley Semiconductor (1955), Sylvania, Centralab, Fairchild Semiconductor and Texas Instruments were making transistors. In 1958 Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce of Fairchild independently invented the Integrated Circuit, a method of producing multiple transistors on a single "chip" of Semiconductor material. This kicked off a number of rapid advances in fabrication technology leading to the exponential growth in semiconductor device production, known as Moore's law that has persisted over the past six or so decades. The industry's annual semiconductor sales revenue has since grown to over $481 billion, as of 2018.
In 2010, the semiconductor industry had the highest intensity of Research & Development in the EU and ranked second after Biotechnology in the EU, United States and Japan combined.
The semiconductor industry is in turn the driving force behind the wider electronics industry, with annual power electronics sales of £135 billion ($216 billion) as of 2011, annual consumer electronics sales expected to reach $2.9 trillion by 2020, tech industry sales expected to reach $5 trillion in 2019, and e-commerce with over $29 trillion in 2017. In 2019, 32.4% of the semiconductor market segment was for networks and communications devices.
In 2021, the sales of semiconductors reached a record $555.9 billion, up 26.2%, with sales in China reaching $192.5 billion, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association. A record 1.15 trillion semiconductor units were shipped in the calendar year. The semiconductor industry is projected to reach $726.73 billion by 2027.

## Industry structure

The global semiconductor industry is dominated by companies from the United States, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and the Netherlands, with Israel and Germany having significant presence in the field.
Unique features of the industry include continuous growth but in a cyclical pattern with high volatility. While the current 20-year annual average growth of the semiconductor industry is on the order of 13%, this has been accompanied by equally above-average market volatility, which can lead to significant if not dramatic cyclical swings. This has required the need for high degrees of flexibility and innovation in order to constantly adjust to the rapid pace of change in the market as many products embedding semiconductor devices often have a very short life cycle.
At the same time, the rate of constant price-performance improvement in the semiconductor industry is staggering. As a consequence, changes in the semiconductor market not only occur extremely rapidly but also anticipate changes in industries evolving at a slower pace. The semiconductor industry is widely recognized as a key driver and technology enabler for the whole electronics value chain.
Prior to the 1980s, the semiconductor industry was vertically integrated. Semiconductor companies both designed and manufactured chips in their own facilities. In many cases, this included inventing new processes, refining and purifying source chemicals and silicon wafers, and even manufacturing equipment, like furnaces, lithography tools and etchers. These companies also carried out the assembly and testing of their chips. Over time, many of these functions were outsourced, such that today semiconductor manufacturers rely on a complex supply chain to provide wafers, high purity source chemicals, and processing equipment. Further, starting with LSI in 1969, the industry has seen the emergence of Fabless Semiconductor Companies that focus solely on chip design and rely on other companies to manufacture their designs. Initially, these other companies were integrated device manufacturers (IDMs), companies that also designed and manufactured their own products, and thus were often competitors of the Fabless companies. But, by the mid-1980's TSMC and UMC emerged as foundries, specializing solely in the manufacture of other companies' designs.
Today, much of the industry is based on the foundry model, which consists of semiconductor fabrication plants (foundries) and integrated circuit design operations, each belonging to separate companies or subsidiaries. Some companies, known as integrated device manufacturers, both design and manufacture semiconductors. The foundry model has resulted in consolidation among foundries. As of 2021, only three firms are able to manufacture the most advanced semiconductors: TSMC of Taiwan, Samsung of South Korea, and Intel of the United States. Part of this is due to the high capital costs of building foundries. TSMC's latest factory, capable of fabricating 3 nm process semiconductors and completed in 2020, cost $19.5 billion.
Intel is considering outsourcing some production to TSMC. It currently can only produce 10 nm semiconductors, while TSMC and Samsung can both produce 5 nm. GlobalFoundries, an American-headquartered firm, uses a 12 nm process for its most advanced chips due to the rapidly increasing development costs of smaller process nodes.

## Semiconductor sales
### Sales revenue

Annual semiconductor sales (1987–2018) :
| Year | Revenue (nominal) | Revenue (inflation) |
| 2022 | $601,694,000,000 | |
| 2021 | $594,952,000,000 | |
| 2020 | $466,237,000,000 | |
| 2019 | $422,237,000,000 | |
| 2018 | $481,090,000,000 | $602,410,000,000 |
| 2017 | $420,390,000,000 | $539,270,000,000 |
| 2016 | $345,850,000,000 | $453,120,000,000 |
| 2015 | $335,170,000,000 | $444,620,000,000 |
| 2014 | $335,840,000,000 | $446,070,000,000 |
| 2013 | $305,580,000,000 | $412,490,000,000 |
| 2012 | $291,560,000,000 | $399,330,000,000 |
| 2011 | $299,520,000,000 | $418,660,000,000 |
| 2010 | $298,320,000,000 | $430,160,000,000 |
| 2009 | $226,310,000,000 | $331,690,000,000 |
| 2008 | $280,000,000,000 | $409,000,000,000 |
| 2007 | $255,600,000,000 | $387,600,000,000 |
| 2006 | $247,700,000,000 | $386,400,000,000 |
| 2005 | $227,000,000,000 | $365,000,000,000 |
| 2004 | $213,000,000,000 | $355,000,000,000 |
| 2000 | $204,000,000,000 | $372,000,000,000 |
| 1995 | $144,000,000,000 | $297,000,000,000 |
| 1992 | $60,000,000,000 | $134,000,000,000 |
| 1990 | $51,000,000,000 | $123,000,000,000 |
| 1987 | $33,000,000,000 | $91,000,000,000 |
2017 sales breakdown :
| Industry sector | Revenue | Market share |
| Memory | $124 billion | 30% |
| Logic | $102.2 billion | 25% |
| Microprocessor | $63.9 billion | 16% |
| Power semiconductors | $36.8 billion | 9% |
| Total | $420.39 billion | 100% |
2008 sales breakdown :
| Semiconductor type | Revenue | Market share |
| Integrated circuit chip | $250 billion | 89.3% |
| Compound semiconductors | $20 billion | 7.1% |
| Power transistors | $10 billion | 3.6% |
| Total | $280 billion | 100% |

### Market share

Microprocessor market share (2022) :
| Industry sector | Market share |
| Computer and peripheral equipment | 32.3% |
| Consumer electronics | 21.2% |
| Telecommunications equipment | 16.5% |
| Industrial electronics | 14.3% |
| Defense and space industry | 11.5% |
| Transportation technology | 4.2% |

## Largest companies

Largest semiconductor companies (annual semiconductor sales leaders) :
| Rank | 2021 | 2020 | 2018 | 2017 | 2011 | 2006 | 2000 | 1995 | 1992 | 1990 | 1986 | 1985 | 1975 |
| 1 | Samsung | Intel | Samsung | Samsung | Intel | Intel | Intel | Intel | NEC | NEC | NEC | NEC | TI |
| 2 | Intel | Samsung | Intel | Intel | Samsung | Samsung | Toshiba | NEC | Toshiba | Toshiba | Toshiba | TI | Motorola |
| 3 | SK Hynix | TSMC | SK Hynix | TSMC | TSMC | TI | NEC | Toshiba | Intel | Hitachi | Hitachi | Motorola | Philips |
| 4 | Micron | SK Hynix | TSMC | SK Hynix | TI | Toshiba | Samsung | Hitachi | Motorola | Intel | ? | Hitachi | ? |
| 5 | Qualcomm | Micron | Micron | Micron | Toshiba | ST | TI | Motorola | Hitachi | Motorola | ? | Toshiba | ? |
| 6 | Nvidia | Qualcomm | Broadcom | Broadcom | Renesas | Renesas | Motorola | Samsung | TI | Fujitsu | ? | Fujitsu | ? |
| 7 | Broadcom | Broadcom | Qualcomm | Qualcomm | Qualcomm | Hynix | ST | TI | ? | Mitsubishi | ? | Philips | ? |
| 8 | TI | Nvidia | Toshiba | TI | ST | Freescale | Hitachi | IBM | Mitsubishi | TI | ? | Intel | ? |
| 9 | Mediatek | TI | TI | Toshiba | Hynix | NXP | Infineon | Mitsubishi | ? | Philips | ? | National | ? |
| 10 | AMD | Infineon | Nvidia | Nvidia | Micron | NEC | Philips | Hyundai | ? | Panasonic | ? | Panasonic | ? |
Major semiconductor companies :
| Name | Country | Manufacturer type | Hardware products |
| Samsung Electronics | South Korea | IDM | NAND flash memory, DRAM, CMOS sensor, RF transceivers, OLED display, SSD |
| Intel | United States | IDM | x86-64 microprocessor, GPU, SSD, DRAM |
| TSMC | Taiwan | Pure-play | |
| SK Hynix | South Korea | IDM | flash memory, DRAM, SSD, CMOS sensor |
| Micron | United States | IDM | DRAM, NAND flash, SSD, NOR flash, Managed NAND, multichip packages |
| Qualcomm | United States | Fabless | RF module, digital signal processor, Snapdragon system on chip |
| Broadcom | United States | Fabless | Broadband/Wi-Fi/Bluetooth modems, Custom DSP & ARM CPUs |
| Kioxia | Japan | IDM | NAND flash memory, SSD |
| Texas Instruments (TI) | United States | IDM | Microcontroller, SoC, DSP, Amplifiers, data converters |
| Analog Devices | United States | IDM | Amplifiers, data converters, audio & video products, RF & microwave, sensors, MEMS |
| Qorvo | United States | IDM | RF module, filters, Amplifiers, PMIC |
| Microchip | United States | IDM | Microcontrollers and analog semiconductors |
| NXP | Netherlands | IDM | PMIC Media processor, MIFARE, LPC |
| MediaTek | Taiwan | Fabless | SoC, chipset, CPU, GPU, DSP |
| Infineon | Germany | IDM | Microcontrollers and power semiconductor devices |
| Bosch | Germany | IDM | |
| STMicroelectronics | France/ Italy | IDM | ASIC, Microcontrollers |
| Sony | Japan | IDM | Active-pixel sensor, NAND flash memory |
| ARM | United Kingdom | Fabless | Instruction set architecture |
| AMD | United States | Fabless | x86-64 CPU, GPU, motherboard chipset, SDRAM |
| Nvidia | United States | Fabless | GPU |
| ON Semiconductor | United States | IDM | |
| UMC | Taiwan | Pure-play | |
| Apple | United States | Fabless | Apple silicon |
| IBM | United States | Fabless | IBM Power microprocessors, z/Architecture |
| Mitsubishi Electric | Japan | IDM | Power semiconductor devices |
| Tower Semiconductor | Israel | IDM | |
| Xilinx | United States | Fabless | programmable logic device |
| SMIC | China | Pure-play |
| Wolfspeed | United States | IDM | SiC |
| Nordic Semiconductor | Norway | Fabless | Bluetooth, Wifi, Low Power Cellular |
Notes:
* Pure-play foundries – They specialize in foundry services. They may or may not offer design services to third parties, as well as mask (photomask) making, semiconductor packaging and testing services, which can also be outsourced to other companies. An example is TSMC, which offers design, testing and packaging services, TCE photomasks, which offers only mask making services, and ChipMOS, which offers only packaging and testing services.
* IDMs (integrated device manufacturers) – They may or may not offer foundry services.
* Fabless suppliers – They do not offer foundry services. They may or may not offer design services to third parties.

## Device shipments

Semiconductor devices (est. million manufactured units) :
| Year | Optoelectronics | Sensor / Actuator | MOSFET |
| 1960–2001 | ? | ? | 2,900,000,000,000,000 |
| 2002 | 23,164 | 1,654 | 2,900,000,000,000,000 |
| 2003 | 28,955 | 2,482 | 2,900,000,000,000,000 |
| 2004 | 38,056 | 3,310 | 2,900,000,000,000,000 |
| 2005 | 44,675 | 4,137 | 2,900,000,000,000,000 |
| 2006 | 55,429 | 4,137 | 2,900,000,000,000,000 |
| 2007 | 67,839 | 4,136 | 2,900,000,000,000,000 |
| 2008 | 76,939 | 4,964 | 2,900,000,000,000,000 |
| 2009 | 91,003 | 4,964 | 2,900,000,000,000,000 |
| 2010 | 97,622 | 6,619 | 2,900,000,000,000,000 |
| 2011 | 110,031 | 8,273 | 2,900,000,000,000,000 |
| 2012 | 129,886 | 11,583 | 2,900,000,000,000,000 |
| 2013 | 131,541 | 14,064 | 2,900,000,000,000,000 |
| 2014–2015 | ? | ? | 10,100,000,000,000,000 |
| 2016 | 217,200 | 17,376 | 10,100,000,000,000,000 |
| 2017–2018 | ? | ? | 10,100,000,000,000,000 |
| 1960–2018 | 1,112,340+ | 87,699+ | 13,000,000,000,000,000 |

### Integrated circuits

Integrated circuit chips (est. million manufactured units) :
| Year | MOS memory | MPU / MCU | Analog | Logic | ASIC | ASSP | Total |
| 1960–1991 | ? | 15,000 | ? | ? | ? | ? | 350,000 |
| 1992 | 3,706 | 15,000 | ? | ? | ? | ? | 350,000 |
| 1993 | 4,060 | 15,000 | ? | ? | ? | ? | 350,000 |
| 1994 | 4,938 | 15,000 | ? | ? | ? | ? | 350,000 |
| 1995 | 6,092 | 15,000 | ? | ? | ? | ? | 350,000 |
| 1996 | 6,206 | 15,000 | ? | ? | ? | ? | 350,000 |
| 1997 | 7,155 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 60,100 |
| 1998–1999 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| 2000 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 89,100 |
| 2001 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| 2002 | 9,100 | 6,619 | 24,819 | 11,582 | 2,482 | 23,992 | 78,594 |
| 2003 | 10,755 | 6,618 | 30,611 | 14,064 | 1,655 | 25,646 | 89,349 |
| 2004 | 13,237 | 9,100 | 33,092 | 14,064 | 1,654 | 33,092 | 104,239 |
| 2005 | 15,719 | 8,273 | 37,229 | 14,891 | 2,481 | 38,056 | 116,649 |
| 2006 | 18,201 | 10,755 | 43,020 | 18,200 | 2,482 | 45,501 | 141,600 |
| 2007 | 23,992 | 12,409 | 48,811 | 18,201 | 3,309 | 45,502 | 156,000 |
| 2008 | 25,646 | 12,410 | 49,639 | 18,200 | 1,655 | 47,156 | 154,706 |
| 2009 | 28,128 | 11,582 | 43,020 | 14,892 | 2,482 | 43,847 | 143,951 |
| 2010 | 33,919 | 16,546 | 57,084 | 19,028 | 1,654 | 57,911 | 189,800 |
| 2011 | 33,919 | 17,374 | 56,256 | 19,028 | 1,655 | 58,738 | 186,970 |
| 2012 | 34,747 | 17,373 | 57,084 | 17,373 | 1,655 | 57,083 | 185,315 |
| 2013 | 33,919 | 16,546 | 67,839 | 18,201 | 2,481 | 64,530 | 203,516 |
| 2014 | ? | 18,600 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| 2015 | ? | 22,058 | ? | ? | ? | ? | 235,600 |
| 2016 | 43,440 | 21,174 | 130,320 | 52,128 | ? | ? | 342,416 |
| 2017 | ? | 25,797 | ? | ? | ? | ? | 581,321 |
| 2018 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 634,700 |
| 1960–2018 | 356,879+ | 274,298+ | 635,804+ | 249,852+ | 25,645+ | 541,054+ | 4,043,926+ |

### Discrete devices

Discrete devices (est. million manufactured units) :
| Year | Discrete transistors | Discrete transistors | Discrete transistors | Diode | Total |
| Year | Power | Small-signal | Total | Diode | Total |
| 1954–1956 | ? | ? | 28 | ? | 28+ |
| 1957 | ? | ? | 30 | ? | 30+ |
| 1958–1962 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| 1963 | ? | ? | 303 | ? | 303+ |
| 1964–1965 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| 1966 | ? | ? | 968 | ? | 968+ |
| 1967 | ? | ? | 881 | ? | 881+ |
| 1968 | ? | ? | 997 | ? | 997+ |
| 1969 | ? | ? | 1,249 | ? | 1,249+ |
| 1970 | ? | ? | 914 | ? | 914+ |
| 1971 | ? | ? | 881 | ? | 881+ |
| 1972–2001 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| 2002 | ? | ? | ? | ? | 232,472 |
| 2003 | ? | ? | ? | ? | 245,708 |
| 2004 | ? | ? | ? | ? | 287,901 |
| 2005 | ? | ? | ? | ? | 290,382 |
| 2006 | ? | ? | ? | ? | 321,820 |
| 2007 | ? | ? | ? | ? | 356,566 |
| 2008 | ? | ? | ? | ? | 324,301 |
| 2009 | ? | ? | ? | ? | 289,555 |
| 2010 | 53,000 | ? | 53,000+ | ? | 371,458 |
| 2011 | 45,000 | 110,000 | 155,000 | 143,000 | 356,000 |
| 2012 | ? | ? | ? | ? | 345,812 |
| 2013 | 44,000 | 103,000 | 147,000 | 146,000 | 358,000 |
| 2014 | 48,000 | 109,000 | 157,000 | 154,000 | 380,000 |
| 2015 | 52,000 | 107,000 | 159,000 | 150,000 | 372,000 |
| 2016 | 53,300 | ? | 53,300+ | ? | 382,272 |
| 2017 | 58,100 | ? | 58,100+ | ? | 58,100+ |
| 2018 | 62,800 | ? | 62,800+ | ? | 62,800+ |
| 1954–2018 | 416,200+ | 429,000+ | 851,451+ | 593,000+ | 5,041,398+ |

## Sales

Manufacturers headquartered in the following places are the sales leaders in the pure-play foundry, IDM (integrated device manufacturing), fabless manufacturing and OSAT (outsourced semiconductor assembly and testing) sectors of the industry.
| Rank | Foundry | IDM | Fabless | OSAT |
| 1 | Taiwan | United States | United States | Taiwan |
| 2 | United States | South Korea | Taiwan | United States |
| 3 | China | Japan | China | China |
| 4 | South Korea | European Union | European Union | Singapore |
| 5 | Israel | Taiwan | Japan | Japan |
Manufacturers headquartered in the United States have fabrication plants across the world, including over 50% in the Americas, 39% in the Asia-Pacific region (including 9% in Japan), and 9% in Europe.