Nvidia becomes the world’s most valuable semiconductor company
The semiconductor industry, dictated by technological innovation, is amongst the most rapidly evolving sectors, with a mere five years being sufficient to catalyze significant transformations. Over the past half-decade, the market capitalization of semiconductor giants has undergone considerable fluctuations. Once titanic rivals, Samsung and Intel, have lost their luster, witnessing a slide in their rankings. Concurrently, emerging powerhouses led by NVIDIA, TSMC, and AMD are making a vigorous ascent.
According to Business Korea, based on the South Korean and American stock market data as of the previous weekend (19th May), NVIDIA has claimed the top spot as the semiconductor company with the highest market value worldwide, reaching a staggering $773.2 billion, a significant leap from its $81.4 billion in 2018 when it occupied the sixth position. Hot on its heels, in second place, is TSMC, enjoying considerable popularity in recent years, with a market capitalization of $481 billion, over 60% below NVIDIA, indicative of a substantial gap between the two entities.
Five years ago, Samsung was the leader, but its current market value stands at $314.3 billion, placing it behind NVIDIA and TSMC. While Samsung’s market value has grown over the years, outpacing its $230.3 billion in 2018, the pace of growth significantly lags behind that of NVIDIA and TSMC. Intel ranked closely behind Samsung in 2018, and now has a market value of a mere $124.8 billion, relegating it to the eighth position, with its market value shrunk by 41% in five years, starkly contrasting with the general upward trend observed by most semiconductor companies over the past five years.
Traditional memory semiconductor companies seem to be faring rather poorly. SK Hynix ranked ninth five years ago, has plunged to the seventeenth position, with a market value of $55.7 billion. Micron has slipped from the tenth to the thirteenth position, with a market value of $74.6 billion. Conversely, non-memory and fabless chip design companies have generally experienced varying degrees of growth in their market values, including Broadcom ($284.4 billion), AMD ($170.4 billion), Texas Instruments ($124.8 billion), and Qualcomm ($117.9 billion), amongst others. Notably, AMD’s market value has surged nine-fold over the past five years.
