Chip spending by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) increased 1.1 percent to 601.694 billion in 2022, according to a Gartner report.
Apple ($67.056 billion), Samsung ($46.065 billion), Lenovo ($21.031 billion), Dell ($18.304 billion), BBK Electronics ($18.082 billion), Xiaomi ($14.602 billion), Huawei $12.075 billion, HP $11.291, Sony $7.975 and Hon Hai Precision ($7.531 billion) are in the top list for chipset spending.
The top 10 original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) decreased their chip spending by 7.6 percent and accounted for 37.2 percent of the total market in 2022, according to Gartner. Inflation and recession pressures weakened demand for PCs and smartphones in 2022, impacting global OEMs production.
Most of the top 10 semiconductor customers are major PC and smartphone OEMs. Drop in consumer demand for PCs and smartphones prevented the OEMs from increasing unit production and shipments, said Masatsune Yamaji, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner.
A semiconductor shortage in the automotive, networking and industrial electronics markets, raised chip average selling prices (ASPs) and accelerated semiconductor revenue increases in these markets. Consequently, these factors resulted in the top OEMs decreasing their share of overall semiconductor spending in 2022 from that in 2021.
All top ten companies in 2021 remained in 2022, with Apple and Samsung Electronics retaining the top two spots. Samsung Electronics and Sony increased their chip spending in 2022
Apple, which remained at the top of the semiconductor spending customer ranking for the fourth year in a row, decreased spending on computing microprocessing units (MPUs) by 11.7 percent due to the shift to having its own in-house-designed application processors. However, Apple increased spending on non-memory chips by 2.8 percent.
Samsung Electronics increased chip spending by 2.2 percent and retained the second position. The company gained more market share in the smartphone market due to its leadership in foldable phones, as well as benefiting from the zero-COVID policy in China, which affected its competitors, leading to an increase in spending on semiconductors in 2022.
Sony showed the fastest growth in chip spending in 2022 due to sustained global consumer interest in PlayStation 5 video game consoles. However, production volume could not be raised to meet the level of demand, due to chip shortages and disruption of logistic networks.
Memory accounted for 25 percent of semiconductor sales in 2022. But memory experienced 10 percent revenue decrease due to plummeting prices in the second half of 2022 amid tepid demand. The top 10 OEMs accounted for 49.2 percent of memory spend and consequently saw a significant decline in memory spending.
