Global semiconductor revenue grows 21 pc in 2024, Nvidia leads

According to final results by market intelligence firm Gartner, Nvidia climbed to the No 1 position, overtaking 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 per cent in memory revenue," said 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 centres, he added.

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.

Intel's revenue grew 0.8 per cent 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, according to Gupta.

Meanwhile, about 20 per cent of the workforce in semiconductor design is in India and the country's chip demand, currently at $45-50 billion, is expected to reach $100-110 billion by 2030.

Driven by the government's production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, India's semiconductor consumption market which is valued at $52 billion in 2024-25 is expected to grow at a robust CAGR of 13 per cent through 2030.

Sectors like automotive and industrial electronics present significant value-addition opportunities. Mobile handsets, IT, and industrial applications, which together contribute nearly 70 per cent of the revenue, remain the primary growth drivers, according to the Indian Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA).