TSMC market share tops 67% in Q4: Advisory firm

Taipei, March 15 (CNA) Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) cemented the lead over its peers in the global pure-play wafer foundry market by taking a market share of more than 67 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, leaving its competitors far behind, according to Taipei-based informational market advisory firm TrendForce.

TrendForce said TSMC commanded a 67.1 percent share in the global market during the October-December 2024 period, up from 64.7 percent seen in a quarter earlier after the contract chipmaker generated US$26.85 billion in sales in the fourth quarter, up 14.1 percent from the third quarter.

The advisory firm said TSMC benefited from strong shipment growth of smartphones and artificial intelligence applications to further strengthen its leadership in the market.

The advisory added that with the global foundry business increasingly polarized, chipmakers like TSMC, which specializes in high-end IC production, rode the waves of emerging technologies including AI and high-performance computing devices. On the other hand, manufacturers rolling out chips made on mature products remained bogged down by a supply glut.

TSMC's growing market share left Samsung Electronics Co. of South Korea further behind as the Korean chipmaker took an 8.1 percent market share in the fourth quarter, down from 9.1 percent in the third quarter.

Samsung's sales in the fourth quarter fell 1.4 percent from a quarter earlier to US$3.26 billion as its sales from new advanced-node customers failed to fully compensate for the loss of orders from its major existing clients, TrendForce said.

China's Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) came in third with a 5.5 percent share of the market in the fourth quarter, ahead of United Microelectronics Corp. of Taiwan with a 4.7 percent share, and U.S.-based GlobalFoundries Inc. with a 4.6 percent share.

Huahong Group from China took the sixth place, with a 2.6 percent market share, followed by Israel's Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (1.0 percent), Taiwan's Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp. (VIS) (0.9 percent), China's NexChip Co. (0.9 percent) and Taiwan's Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (PSMC) (0.8 percent).

TrendForce said the top 10 contract chipmakers posted US$38.48 billion in sales in the fourth quarter, up almost 10 percent from a quarter earlier, accounting for about 96 percent of the global total.