Samsung Extending its Sales Lead Over Intel

 South Korea's Samsung Electronics — which overtook Intel last year to become the world's top chip vendor by sales — is expected to widen its lead this year, according to market research firm IC Insights said.

The firm projects that Samsung will have 2018 chip sales of $83.3 billion, 19% more than Intel. Last year, Samsung's chip sales total bested Intel's by about 7%.

Cumulative chip sales for the top 15 semiconductor suppliers are projected to increase by 18% this year, 2 percentage points more than the chip industry as a whole, according to IC Insights.

In total, nine of the top 15 chip vendors are on track to post sales increases of greater than 10%, IC Insights said. Four of the top 15 are expected to have gains of more than 20% this year, the firm said.

Despite a slowdown in memory price increases in recent months, each of the top three memory chip makers — Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron Technology — are expected to grow sales by more than 25% over a very strong 2017, IC Insights (Scottsdale, Ariz.) said. Hynix is expected to be the fastest growing chip vendor among the top 15 this year, with sales forecast to increase by 41%, the firm said.

About 84% of Samsung's chip revenue is forecast to come from memory chips, up from 81% last year, IC Insights said. The company's memory chip sales are projected to increase 31% this year to reach $70 billion. Samsung's non-memory chip sales are expected to increase by just 6%, reaching $13.3 billion, IC Insights said.

Among the top 15 chip vendors, only Qualcomm is expected to experience an annual revenue decline this year, with sales projected to slip by 3%, according to IC Insights.