The first quarter of 2020 saw most economies struggling to keep it together amid the COVID-19 pandemic. However, no everyone was among the losers. Many companies especially those behind online cloud-based entertainment and certain chipmakers had their best quarters yet. The biggest winner is without a doubt TSMC whose sales grew by a massive 45% YoY.
The other major leaders were NVIDIA and Huawei’s HiSilicon. Both saw record gains with the former enjoying a sales boost of 37% YoY and the latter a whopping 54%. Intel regained the top position after losing it to Samsung several years ago, and the company did well despite increased competition from AMD and 14nm shortages.
TSMC and HiSilicon are becoming increasingly tied to one another. In 2019, the latter accounted for 14% of all chip orders received by the Taiwanese Foundry. Furthermore, HiSilicon and Apple together represent 37% of TSMC’s total sales in 2019.
The two new companies in the top-10 are NVIDIA and HiSilicon, both of whom had an excellent first quarter. Huawei’s chipmaker jumped five spots from the fifteenth to take the tenth spot. This is interesting because 90% of the orders come from Huawei which has been facing more and more pressure from the US government as of late. It’ll be worth seeing if China’s lead tech company can keep up the momentum in the coming months as the world reels under the impact of the pandemic.
