Samsung’s semiconductor business is largely responsible for the high operating profits which the company recorded this year. In the second quarter, it brought Intel’s 24-year reign as the world’s largest chipmaker to an end and now, Market research firm IC Insights predicts that the South Korean tech giant will lead Intel in full-year 2017 semiconductor sales by a whopping $4.6 billion.
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Intel has been the top chipmaker in the world since 1993 and Samsung’s persistence shows that its Q2 performance wasn’t a fluke. Intel’s sales were 40% larger than Samsung’s in Q1 2016 thus it took Samsung just over a year to overturn this result.
Well, Samsung owes many thanks to the huge surge in DRAM and NAND flash prices because the demand was much higher than their availability. This has now ensured that Intel trails Samsung full-year 2017 sales by $4.6 billion. By the end of this year, Samsung is expected to have 15% of the global semiconductor market while Intel will probably be second with 13.9%. In order to retain this position, Samsung has been investing heavily in the advancement of its semiconductor technology by opening numerous factories in different parts of the world.