AMD Surpasses Qualcomm Amid AI Boom in the New Ranking

The artificial intelligence boom continues to influence the global semiconductor market. According to TrendForce analysts, the combined revenue of the top ten fabless chip designers surged by 73% in the second quarter, reaching $141.45 billion.

The quarter's key highlight was AMD's rise to the third spot in the rankings, while Qualcomm dropped to fourth place due to a slump in the smartphone market.

Why AMD Pulled Ahead

AMD expanded its quarterly revenue 1.5-fold to $10.2 billion. The primary driver of AMD’s growth was strong demand for server CPUs, which are essential for AI computing infrastructure. The company's server CPU sales have hit record highs for five consecutive quarters, allowing AMD to systematically take market share from Intel.

Qualcomm, in contrast, had its revenue decline by 5% to $8.5 billion. The main reasons for it were headwinds in the mobile segment, high memory chip prices, and overall component shortages.

Broadcom Takes Second Place, Nvidia Remains Out of Reach

Nvidia remains the "untouchable" industry leader, capturing 64% of the total revenue generated by the top ten developers. The company nearly doubled its year-over-year revenue, earning $91.2 billion.

Broadcom secured second place with the most impressive growth among all top-10 participants: its revenue jumped by 112% to $18.9 billion. This surge was driven by the production of specialized AI accelerators for tech giants, including Google and OpenAI.

Fifth, sixth, and seventh places 

Fifth place in the ranking went to MediaTek with $4.72 billion in revenue; sixth place was held by Marvell, which brought in $2.63 billion thanks to data center solutions; seventh place was taken by Realtek with revenue of $1.15 billion (+15%).

Note: TrendForce's ranking excludes companies with their own manufacturing facilities, such as Intel and Samsung Electronics.