Revenue from the global semiconductor market grew a modest 1.1 per cent in 2022, Gartner found, as macroeconomic woes impacted global supply chains and led to reduced spending on electronic equipment.

Preliminary figures from the research company show revenue of $601.7 billion compared with $595 billion in 2021, as momentum at the beginning of 2022 was offset by a worsening global economic situation.

Andrew Norwood, VP analyst at Gartner, explained 2022 began with OEMs hedging themselves from shortages by stockpiling chip inventory, but by the second half of the year “the global economy began to slow under the strain of high inflation, rising interest rates, higher energy costs and continued Covid-19 lockdowns in China, impacting supply chains”.

“Consumers also began to reduce spending, with PC and smartphone demand suffering, and then businesses started to reduce spending in anticipation of a global recession, all of which impacted overall semiconductor growth.”

For semiconductor vendors, the picture was slightly better.

Combined revenue for the top 25 companies in the segment increased 2.8 per cent, accounting for 77.5 per cent of the total.

Samsung remained top of the tree, although its revenue declined 10.4 per cent primarily due to declines in memory and NAND flash sales.

Intel, SK Hynix, Qualcomm and Micron Technologies rounded out the top five.