Top semiconductor companies worldwide 2019-2021, by sales revenue

In 2021, Samsung retook market leader position with regards to global semiconductor sales with a sales volume of about 83.09 billion U.S. dollars. Intel ranked second, generating 75.55 billion U.S. dollars from the sale of semiconductors during 2021.

Regional highlights

The global semiconductor industry is dominated by companies from North America and Asia-Pacific region. Countries such as China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan rank as some of the biggest markets for semiconductor equipment spending. One of the world’s leading chip-making machine manufacturers, and the only company in the world producing extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, is ASML (Netherlands) based in Europe.

Europe’s semiconductor ambitions

The European Union (EU) has set a goal for Europe to produce at least 20 percent of the world’s semiconductors by value by 2030. Semiconductor revenue in Europe is lower than in other regions, although Europe does have key strengths which could help it to achieve the ambitious targets. An example is in the production of chips for the automotive industry, with firms such as NXP Semiconductors (Netherlands) and Infineon (Germany) specializing in this field.