Despite there being a semi-conductor shortage in play, chipmakers have still been able to sell product and IC Insights’ latest McClean Report update for May reveals an incredibly interesting state of affairs.

The report ranks the top 15 semiconductor manufacturers by sales and while Intel maintains the top spot, it actually saw sales decline by 4 percent during Q1 2021 compared to Q1 2020.

Interestingly, Intel is a drag on this ranking at the moment dropping the average increase in sales during the quarter from 29 percent to 21 percent. It does seem like Intel is losing favour but perhaps it’s newly formed foundry business will change that.

Following behind Intel is Samsung, TSMC, SK Hynix and Micron in the top five.

But as we move lower down the rankings things get interesting. IC Insights reports that HiSilicon – Huawei’s semiconductor design division – has fallen out of the top 15, as has Sony. In their place is MediaTek and AMD.

“AMD’s year-over-year sales surged 93 percent in 1Q21, the highest growth rate of any of the top-15 companies, to move up seven spots in the ranking and into 11th place. Moreover, the company expects its full-year 2021 sales to increase about 50 percent. MediaTek also posted an incredible year-over-year sales increase of 90 percent in 1Q21 and jumped up six positions into 10th place. Interestingly, the four highest year-over-year growth rates registered in 1Q21 were from fabless suppliers (AMD, MediaTek, Qualcomm, and Nvidia), each greater than 50 percent.” explains IC Insights.

Why has HiSilicon fallen so far? Well unfortunately as Huawei is still sanctioned by the US it can’t purchase integrated circuits from TSMC and that means it can’t make chips.

Apple ranks 13th in the world and saw sales increase by 11 percent compared to Q1 2020.

While public sentiment will tell you that AMD is gaining traction and Intel is losing favour, it’s always nice to have some data to back these claims up.

You can find the full update to the McClean Report here.