According to preliminary results from Gartner, Inc. chip spending by the world's top 10 original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) decreases by 7.6 percent in 2022, representing 37.2 percent of the overall market. inflation and recessionary pressures significantly weakened demand for PCs and smartphones in 2022, impacting OEM production worldwide.

Most of the top 10 semiconductor customers are major PC and smartphone OEMs. "As a result, consumer demand for PCs and smartphones has fallen sharply, leaving top OEMs unable to increase unit production and shipments," said Masatsune Yamaji, senior director analyst at Gartner.

"China's zero COVID policy has also led to severe material shortages and short-term disruptions in the electronics supply chain. Continued semiconductor shortages in the automotive, networking and industrial electronics markets have increased average selling prices (ASPs) for chips and accelerated semiconductor revenue growth in these markets. As a result, these factors lead to a decrease in the top OEMs' share of total semiconductor spending in 2022 compared to 2021."

All of the top 10 companies in 2021 remain the same in 2022, with Apple and Samsung Electronics maintaining their top two positions. Only Samsung Electronics and Sony increase their chip spending in 2022 (see Table 1).

Table 1: Top 10 Global Semiconductor Design TAM Companies in 2022 ($M)

Apple topped the list of consumer semiconductor customers for the fourth consecutive year. The company reduced spending on computing microprocessor units (MPUs) by 11.7 percent as it continued to shift to application processors with its own in-house designs. However, Apple increased spending on non-memory chips by 2.8 percent.

Samsung Electronics increased its chip spending by 2.2 percent and maintained the second position. The company gained more market share in the smartphone market due to its leadership in foldable phones and benefited from China's COVID policy that influenced its competitors, leading to an increase in semiconductor spending in 2022.

Sony will see the fastest growth in chip spending in 2022 due to continued global consumer interest in the PlayStation 5 video game console. However, production cannot increase to meet demand levels due to severe chip shortages and logistics network disruptions that persist throughout the year.

Memory, which accounted for approximately 25 percent of semiconductor sales in 2022, was the worst-performing device category, with a 10 percent decline in revenue due to lukewarm demand and plummeting prices in the second half of 2022. "The top 10 OEMs account for 49.2 percent of memory spending, so memory spending is down significantly," Yamaji said.