TRADE ALERT: Section 232 & 301 Investigations . Apr 21, 2025. Read More.

Global Commodity Intelligence

Q2 2025 | APRIL - JUNE

2021 Global Semiconductor Revenue Reaches an All-time High

March 31, 2022

2021 was a banner year for global semiconductor growth, with the industry growing 25% reaching total revenues of $585B. This marks the first time global semiconductor revenues have topped the half a trillion-dollar threshold. The perennial leader is Intel again followed closely by Samsung. During the year we saw additional capacity come online however, the accelerator to revenue growth was driven by ASP expansion almost across the board. These top twenty (20) suppliers represent a little over 75% of the total global revenue.

Source: IHSMarkits Q4 ’21 Competitive Landscape Tool

Memory Sales Reach a New High

In 2021 global revenues from the combined memory segments (DRAM, NAND Flash, etc.) topped $168B, a record high, which as a percentage of overall semiconductor revenues was 28%, just shy of its 32% of total revenue in 2019. The top six (6) suppliers, listed below, account for 92% of the global memory revenues. This will be even further concentrated in 2022 adjusting for the sale of Intel’s Nand memory business to SK Hynix which closed in January of this year.

Source: IHSMarkits Q4 ’21 Competitive Landscape Tool

Sales by Industry Segment

In 2021, the top growth segment was Consumer Electronics ($59.5B) at 37% followed closely by Automotive ($52.6B) at 31% year-over-year growth. The largest revenue segment was Data Processing with revenues of over $200B.

Source: Jabil Procurement Intelligence Team

Mergers & Acquisitions Continued the Trend for Industry Consolidation

In 2021, Analog Devices completed its $21B acquisition of Maxim Integrated Products, following their acquisition of Linear Technology for $14.8B in 2017, making them the clear #2 in analog behind Texas Instruments. AMD closed their largest acquisition of Xilinx in February 2022 which will move them up a few positions in 2022.

It should also be noted that Nvidia dropped its proposed $40B acquisition for ARM, which is rumored to go public (currently owned by Softbank) sometime this year.

Source: Jabil Procurement Intelligence Team

Looking Forward

The early forecast for revenue growth in 2022 is at least another 10%, pushing global numbers to well over $600B for the year. Considering the current environment with extended lead times, headwinds from overall foundry capacity and suppliers' increasing prices, to shortages of lead frames, substrates, the potential impact of other raw materials, including Neon gases from Ukraine, the potential for another robust year of growth in the semiconductor industry seems very realistic.

With lead times for many products such as microcontrollers, programmable logic devices (PLDs), general-purpose analog, and logic extending to 48 weeks or greater, we expect the semiconductor market to be tight throughout all of 2022 and going into 2023. Even with billions of dollars of capital investments committed to infrastructure and CapEx, it’s hard to imagine global capacity catching up with demand in the next 12 – 24 months.

Over the past year, we have seen demand coming from robust growth markets such as global 5G rollouts, the electrification of vehicles, data centers supporting AI and ML along with all connected devices. This demand has driven extreme price increases by many suppliers in the range of 30% year-over-year for the second year in a row. We forecast continued price increases looking into the new year with TSMC already communicating and an additional 10 to 20% price increase for 8” wafers.

Jabil Perspective

Although many manufacturers (IDMs and foundries) are unfolding massive investment plans, the market has not exhibited many improvements in lead times or supply chain flexibility since the beginning of 2022. Demand continues to outstrip supply and there is no evidence this will change medium-term.

Texas Instruments CEO Rich Templeton expressed continued concerns that any minor supply chain disruption will impact relief in the short term. These disruptions may be created by outbreaks of COVID-19 infections in various regions affecting productivity and logistics, inflation and availability of raw materials including Neon gases (Ukraine is the largest supplier to the semiconductor industry), along with constraints from lead frames and substrates.

Realizing this is a process industry with physical manufacturing lead times between 8 to 24 weeks, depending on device complexity, we need to provide as much visibility to our supply base as possible. Some suppliers, in addition to allocations are implementing NCNR orders for windows within 12 months. We are experiencing many of the more mature product families being announced as EOL, to free up capacity for newer technologies and higher-margin products.

Key Takeaways

Global semiconductor growth in 2021 exceeded 25% and reached $585B in revenues the first time, surpassing half a trillion dollars.
Extended lead times and price increases where standard operating practices in 2021 and will continue through 2022.
Mega mergers and acquisitions continue with AMD closing their $35B acquisition of Xilinx in February 2022.
It is critical that our customer’s design teams follow the supplier technology roadmaps to prevent the design-in of legacy and end-of-life products.

If you have any questions or need additional information, please do not hesitate to contact me directly (rudi_palmans@jabil.com).

Rudi Palmans

Director, Supplier Relationship Management