Gartner: Top ten global semiconductor buyers decreased chip spending by 7.6% in 2022, with Huawei lowering the most

By Li Panpan

(JW Insights) Feb 8-- The top 10 global original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) decreased their chip spending by 7.6% and accounted for 37.2% of the total market in 2022, according to preliminary results by Gartner. Huawei has cut the most, with its chip spending at $12.01 billion, a decrease of 19.4% from 2021, ranking 7th among the top ten in 2022.

In the rankings in 2022 and 2021, China's PC giant Lenovo stayed at 3rd, with $21,031 million in IC spending in 2022, down by 17.2%.

BBK Electronics(步步高) - the owner of Chinese mobile phone brands Oppo and vivo - dropped from 4th to 5th, spending $18,082 million, a 17.1% decrease.

Chinese leading brand Xiaomi remained at 6th and spent $14,602 million in buying chips, down by 11.3%.

Global inflation and recession pressures sharply weakened demand for PCs and smartphones in 2022, impacting global OEMs production, said Gartner.

Most of the top 10 semiconductor customers are major PC and smartphone OEMs. “A sharp drop in consumer demand for PCs and smartphones prevented the top OEMs from increasing unit production and shipments,” said Masatsune Yamaji, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner.

Apple remained at the top of the semiconductor spending customer ranking for the fourth year in a row. Samsung Electronics increased chip spending by 2.2% due to its leadership in foldable phones, as well as benefiting from the zero-COVID policy in China, which affected its competitors.

Sony showed the fastest growth in chip spending in 2022 due to sustained global consumer interest in PlayStation 5 video game consoles.

Accounting for approximately 25% of semiconductor sales in 2022, memory was the worst-performing device category, experiencing a 10% revenue decrease due to plummeting prices in the second half of 2022 amid tepid demand, said Gartner.