South Korea’s technology giant, Samsung Electronics has taken Intel’s title as the world’s No. 1 chipmaker in terms of revenue.
Samsung’s chip business hit $15.8 billion during the latest quarter, with an operating income of $7.2 billion, surpassing Intel, which reported $14.76 billion in chip sales during the same period, with an operating income of $3.8 billion.
According to The Associated Press, Intel had been the leading semiconductor company by sales since 1992. But as sales of personal computers have declined with the rise of smartphones and other mobile devices, Samsung’s chip business has benefited.
Besides selling consumer electronics like smartphones and televisions, Samsung has broadened into making chips for mobile devices, as well as connected chips for IoT and smart vehicles. Intel on the other hand has focused on CPUs for computers and servers. The company also sells chips for corporate data centers, a market that it dominates.
Intel isn’t giving up on this rivalry. It has claimed that its next generation of long-delayed Cannon Lake 10nm chips will feature twice as many transistors as Samsung’s or TMSC’s, putting them “light years” ahead.