Worldwide semiconductor revenue totaled $655.9 billion in 2024, reflecting a remarkable increase of 21 percent from the previous year’s $542.1 billion, according to final results by Gartner, Inc. NVIDIA has ascended to the No. 1 position, surpassing Samsung Electronics and Intel for the first time.
“The position shift among the top 10 semiconductor vendor revenue ranking is due to large demand for AI infrastructure buildout and an increase of 73.4 percent in memory revenue,” stated Gaurav Gupta, VP analyst at Gartner. “NVIDIA moved to the No. 1 spot as a result of a marked increase in demand for its discrete graphic processing units (GPUs) that served as the primary choice for AI workloads in data centers.”
“Samsung Electronics retained the No. 2 spot, driven by gains in both DRAM and flash memory as prices rebounded sharply in response to an imbalance in supply and demand,” Gupta noted. “Intel’s revenue grew 0.8 percent in 2024 as competitive threats gained momentum across all its major product lines, and it was unable to take advantage of the robust increase in demand for AI processing.”
U.S. tariff announcements impacting semiconductor sector
In a related context, U.S. President Donald Trump stated on Sunday that he would be announcing tariffs on imported semiconductors within the next week, adding that the U.S. will offer flexibility for certain companies in the sector. This announcement marks a significant shift in the reciprocal tariff policy, moving away from the recently excluded smartphones and computers, which provided short-lived relief to China.
“We wanted to uncomplicate it from a lot of other companies because we want to make our chips and semiconductors and other things in our country,” Trump told reporters.
Earlier in the day, Trump announced a national security trade probe into the semiconductor sector. “We are taking a look at semiconductors and the whole electronics supply chain in the upcoming National Security Tariff Investigations,” he posted on social media.
The White House had announced exclusions from steep reciprocal tariffs on Friday, raising hopes among tech investors that consumer products like phones and laptops would remain affordable. However, Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, confirmed on Sunday that technology products from China would face separate new tariffs alongside semiconductors in the next two months.
