
The global semiconductor industry saw explosive growth in 2024, mainly driven by sales of processors for AI applications, according to TrendForce. The Top 10 largest fabless chip developers earned nearly a quarter of a trillion dollars last year; roughly half of that sum came from Nvidia.
The largest fabless chip designers generated $249.8 billion in revenue, up 49% from the previous year. The growth boomed due to skyrocketing demand for AI GPUs, ASICs, adjacent chips (e.g., network processors, DPUs), datacenter CPUs, and recovered demand for client PCs. Market consolidation also intensified, with the Top 5 firms now accounting for over 90% of the revenue among the Top 10.