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China’s semiconductor ambitions take a hit after Huawei’s HiSilicon drops out of global top 25 chip vendor rankings
- HiSilicon’s revenue declined to US$1.5 billion last year, down from US$8.2 billion in 2020, according to research firm Gartner
- That made an impact on China’s overall share of the global semiconductor market, which declined to 6.5 per cent in 2021 from 6.7 per cent a year earlier
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HiSilicon, the integrated circuit (IC) design arm of Huawei Technologies Co, has dropped out of the rankings of the world’s top 25 semiconductor vendors amid stifling US trade sanctions that have also reduced China’s overall share of the global chip market, according to research firm Gartner.
That exit marked “the most significant shift” among the global semiconductor vendor rankings last year, according to a Gartner report released on Thursday, as Huawei continues to fight for survival after the company and scores of its affiliates – including HiSilicon – were added to the US government’s trade blacklist in May 2019.
“HiSilicon’s revenue declined 81 per cent, from US$8.2 billion in 2020 to US$1.5 billion in 2021,” Andrew Norwood, research vice-president at Gartner, said in the report. “This was a direct result of the US sanctions against the company and its parent Huawei.”
It also made an impact on China’s share of the global semiconductor market, which declined to 6.5 per cent last year from 6.7 per cent in 2020, according to Norwood.
The latest chip vendor rankings come weeks after privately-held Huawei reported its worst annual sales performance on record. The Shenzhen-based company posted total 2021 revenue of 636.8 billion yuan (US$100 billion), down 29 per cent from a year earlier, as the company continued to struggle with tighter restrictions imposed by Washington in 2020 – covering access to advanced chips developed or produced using US technology, from anywhere.
With no end in sight to US restrictions amid simmering tensions between Beijing and Washington, Huawei has much work ahead before it can revitalise HiSilicon’s business and status in the semiconductor industry.
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