The semiconductor revenue fell 1.8 percent in the first quarter of 2017 to $95.3 billion, according to semiconductor industry report from IHS Markit.
Shaun Teevens, analyst at IHS Markit, said the semiconductor industry declined 8.6 percent in Q1 2016.
Top semiconductor suppliers
Intel is the number one semiconductor supplier with Q1 revenue of $14 billion. Intel has 14.7 percent share.
Korean technology giant Samsung has clocked $12.8 billion revenue from semiconductor business. Samsung’s market share in global semiconductor industry was 13.4 percent in Q1 2017.
SK Hynix is in the third and Micron is the fourth position. Broadcom is the fifth largest semiconductor company with quarterly revenue of $4 billion.
Analog Devices and SK Hynix enjoyed the highest revenue growth quarter over quarter by 29 percent and 21.5 percent respectively.
Analog Devices achieved growth through its purchase of Linear Technology, making it an even bigger analog industry powerhouse.
SK Hynix was driven by average sales price increases in both NAND and DRAM markets, as supply in the memory market remains tight.
Semiconductor growth drivers
Walter Coon, director at IHS Markit, said the memory market achieved record revenues for both DRAM and NAND in Q1 2017.
NAND supply/demand dynamics remain extremely tight, with a healthy demand from SSD and mobile applications exceeding constrained bit supply due to the industry transition from planar to 3D NAND technology.
The automotive sector posted 4.7 percent growth over last quarter — driven by increasing chip content in cars and the push towards electric vehicles (EVs).
Maxim Integrated reported a possible slowdown towards the end of the second quarter, due to weakness in the Chinese and US EV markets. Texas Instruments and Cypress expressed more optimistic outlooks for the coming quarter.
NXP is the top semiconductor supplier in automotive applications, even after its recent divestiture of its Standard Products division for automotive applications.
Infineon is the number two semiconductor supplier in automotive applications, attributing its double digit growth rate in this sector to the strength in China and Europe in terms of their EV and ADAS businesses.
