Samsung bested Intel in research company Gartner’s ranking of semiconductor vendors by revenue for the first time in three years during 2021, with the market’s overall sales growing despite supply chain shortages.

The South Korean vendor took a 12.3 per cent share of the market compared with Intel’s 12.2 per cent, but Gartner noted Samsung’s revenue grew 28 per cent year-on-year to $73.2 billion while its US rival remained flat on $72.5 billion.

Overall chip revenue grew 26.3 per cent to $595 billion. Gartner research VP Andrew Norwood noted the increase was driven in part by demand for 5G smartphones.

He explained a combination of strong demand, and rises in logistic and materials costs pushed semiconductor ASPs up.

Norwood also noted an 81 per cent drop in Huawei chip unit HiSilicon’s revenue, citing the impact of US sanctions. This resulted in a marginal decline in China’s market share to 6.5 per cent, with South Korea top on 19.3 per cent.

Gartner noted sales in the smartphone-dominated wireless communications sector grew 24.6 per cent, adding the number of 5G models produced grew from 251 million in 2020 to 556 million.

Enterprise Wi-Fi upgrades also contributed to the sector’s growth.