Recently, the consumer electronics market continues to be weak, which affects the revenue of the semiconductor market. Samsung, TSMC and Intel have different market performances.

Combined with the financial report data, Samsung and TSMC are chasing after each other in semiconductor revenue. Samsung's semiconductor business has been in the lead for four consecutive quarters, and TSMC's performance has steadily climbed. The industry forecast is expected to surpass Samsung in the third quarter of this year to become the first in global semiconductor market revenue; Intel is in the process of accelerating transformation, making efforts to develop special chips, and its periodic weakness appears.

Samsung maintains its lead for 4 consecutive quarters, worried about the situation in the second half of the year     

According to Samsung’s financial report data for the second quarter of 2022, Samsung’s revenue in the second quarter was 77.20 trillion won (about 61.76 billion U.S. dollars), an increase of 21.6% over the same period, and its net profit increased by 15.3% over the same period to 10.95 trillion won ($8.3 billion) .

It is reported that Samsung maintained its leading position in the global semiconductor market for the fourth consecutive quarter. By business, the DS (semiconductor) field recorded sales of KRW 28.5 trillion (approximately US$21.1 billion) in the second quarter, the DX (mobile and home appliances) field recorded sales of KRW 44.46 trillion, and the SDC (display) field recorded sales of 7.71 trillion won.

Source:Samsung

Overall, Samsung has maintained its lead in the global semiconductor market for four consecutive quarters. However, the memory chip market is shrinking, and the industry, including Samsung, has expressed concerns about the situation in the second half of the year.

Samsung warned that demand for mobile and personal computer chips is expected to continue to cool as macroeconomic uncertainty persists, affecting demand for memory chips. The outlook for the second half of the year is bleak, and Samsung has yet to see momentum for a recovery next year, a company executive said. Meanwhile, peers such as SK Hynix and Micron have recently warned of slowing demand.

Kyung Kyehyun, head of the device solutions division in charge of Samsung's semiconductor business, has previously publicly stated that Samsung's strategy is to respond more quickly to market changes, rather than stick to a pre-prepared investment plan. That said, the company will do its best to keep capex steady.

It is reported that Samsung began mass production of 3-nanometer chips at its foundry in June this year. Samsung has invested heavily in recent years to compete with TSMC in advanced processes, and Kyung said Samsung will focus on improving performance and reducing chip costs as it aims to manufacture next-generation 3-nanometer chips by 2024.

TSMC's foundry performance has risen steadily, and advanced manufacturing processes have taken the lead

In terms of TSMC, revenue in the second quarter increased by 44% year-on-year to NT$534.14 billion (approximately US$18.16 billion). Net profit in the second quarter rose to NT$237.03 billion from NT$134.36 billion in the same period last year, a 76% year-on-year increase, setting a new record.

By technology, 5-nanometer orders for advanced processes accounted for 21% of sales, compared with 18% in the same period last year, and 7-nanometer orders accounted for 30% of sales, compared with 31% in the same period last year.

Source:TSMC

In the past two years, TSMC has played a stable role in the semiconductor market. According to industry forecasts, TSMC is expected to surpass Samsung in the third quarter of this year to become the world's largest semiconductor market revenue leader.

Overall, TSMC is far ahead in the advanced process race. TSMC officials said that TSMC's 3-nanometer chips are expected to increase significantly in the second half of the third quarter of this year, and will enter the mass production stage in the fourth quarter. As for the more advanced 2nm, President Wei Zhejia said that 2nm will use the new nanosheet technology, which will be mass-produced in 2025. At that time, it will be the advanced process technology with the smallest transistor density and the best performance.

In addition, the competition between TSMC and Samsung is highly reflected in Apple's foundry. Since 2014, when TSMC and Samsung competed for Apple A8 orders, TSMC drove Samsung out of the iPhone 6 chip order with a 28nm process.

Since then, starting with the iPhone 7, TSMC has monopolized the production of all Apple A-series chips, up to today's latest series of Apple's M3 chips. According to the latest news from industry media, Apple hopes to be the first company to use TSMC's upgraded 3-nanometer chip manufacturing technology next year, and plans to use the technology on some iPhones and Macs.

Intel accelerates transformation and develops dedicated chips

In contrast, Intel's numbers for the second quarter of this year were poor. According to the financial report, Intel’s revenue in the second quarter was 15.321 billion US dollars, a decrease of 16.5% from the previous quarter and a decrease of 22% from the same period last year. Net loss was $454 million, compared with a net profit of $5.061 billion a year earlier.

Source:Intel

In the second quarter, Intel's two pillars of business revenue both experienced double-digit declines. Among them, PC chip business (CCG) revenue was US$7.7 billion, down 25% year-on-year; server chip-related data center and artificial intelligence (DCAI) revenue was US$4.6 billion, down 16% year-on-year.

But it's worth noting that Intel's networking and edge business, which includes networking products, posted sales of $2.3 billion in the second quarter, up 11% year over year and beating many agency expectations.

At present, Intel is in the process of accelerating transformation, and its staged decline is inevitable. On the one hand, Intel will reduce its capital expenditure plan for the year by $4 billion to $23 billion. On the other hand, abandoning some non-essential businesses, including the Optane memory chip business, Intel believes that closing Optane is a part of optimizing the product portfolio to support the IDM 2.0 strategy.

Currently, Intel is working on dedicated chips. In the second quarter of this year, Intel launched the Habana Gaudi2 artificial intelligence training chip to compete with Nvidia's A100 graphics card, and plans to spin off its Mobileye through an IPO.

It is reported that Mobileye was established in 1999. As an old player in the field of ADAS, it was once the absolute overlord in the field of assisted autonomous driving chips and visual algorithms. At its peak, Mobileye was the ADAS solution provider for almost all mid-to-high-end models on the market, accounting for 70% of the ADAS market.

Souce:DRAMeXchange