The end of an era is near. For the first time, Intel will no longer be the world’s largest chip manufacturer on an annual basis. Samsung takes the cup.
Not Intel but Samsung will be the world’s largest chip manufacturer. That’s according to preliminary sales figures for 2022. Final results won’t follow until the end of this month, according to Bloomberg, but the trend seems set. The switch is a symbolic blow to Intel, which long towered over all other chip makers.
Intel is also losing ground in other areas. Chip developer Nvidia, for example, is three times more valuable than Intel, according to the market. The same goes for chip maker TSMC.
With that, the U.S. processor maker has not dropped out. Samsung, for example, does take in a larger share of the cake, but owes that mainly to sales of memory chips. Intel’s processors are much more complex and also sell at higher margins. In that respect, Intel remains a leading but also extremely profitable company.
revival plans
Moreover, CEO Pat Gelsinger does not want to acquiesce. He plans to make Intel’s CPU production capacity the most advanced in the world again, on the one hand. Intel was a trendsetter for a long time, but was overtaken several years ago by TSMC, which today houses production lines a generation ahead of Intel’s.
Further, Gelsinger plans to compete directly with TSMC and also bake third-party chips in its manufacturing facilities. At best, the plan will not bear fruit for several years.