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Top 10 semiconductor buyers spent 25.2% more on chips in 2021

The chip shortage and the pandemic are causing quite a few problems for equipment manufacturers. In 2021 they not only caused production disruptions, but the situation caused the top 10 equipment manufacturers, which are the top 10 chip buyers increased their spending on semiconductors by 25.2%. Of course, according to Gartner figures, between them they kept 42.1% of market chips.

Despite increasing spending, the shortage of semiconductors meant that equipment manufacturers were unable to increase production of all kinds of products. Not only cars, but also various types of electronic devices, such as smartphones or game consoles. In addition, this shortage led to a rise in the selling prices of semiconductors.

Average sales prices for chips such as microcontroller units, general-purpose integrated logic circuits, and various types of application-specific semiconductors rose 15% or more in 2021. Apple and Samsung Electronics are the companies that have bought the most semiconductors in 2021. The former increased its spending on memory chips by 36.8%, and on non-memory chips by 20.2%. However, it reduced its demand for microprocessing units (MPUs) by switching to using its own processors, designed in-house.

Samsung Electronics increased its spending on memory chips by 34.1%, and by 23.9% on non-memory chips. In his case, the increase in memory spending was not only the consequence of an increase in the price of this type of chip, but also due to Samsung’s growth in the electronic equipment markets that are its targets. Especially in smartphones and SSD storage drives.

Huawei, which ranked third on this list last year, has had additional difficulties buying chips, dropping it to seventh place. Its place is now taken by Lenovo, followed by BBK Electronics and Dell Technologies. Xiaomi ranks sixth, HP eighth, and Hon Hai Precision and HPE ninth and tenth respectively.

Masatsune Yamaji, Gartner Research Directornotes that “Semiconductor makers sold more chips in 2021, but demand from equipment makers was stronger than manufacturers’ production capacity. The semiconductor shortage also accelerated double-booking and panic buying by equipment makers, causing their spending on semiconductors to skyrocket.«.

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