Samsung leads the chip-buying war, but China’s firms are quickly gaining

Samsung retained the title of top semiconductor buyer for 2018, according to a report by Gartner.

The South Korean tech firm spent $43.4-billion on silicon throughout last year, up from $40.4-billion in 2017. Notably, that is a growth rate of 7.5% — the lowest of the world’s top ten.

In second place, Apple spent more than $41-billion on chips, claiming 8.8% of the global market share.

But the real conversation starter is the rise of Chinese companies. Huawei claimed third position ahead of Dell, spending $21.1-billion on semiconductors in 2018. That’s a growth rate of 45.2% over the previous year, Gartner notes.

Lenovo, BBK Electronics (which owns Vivo, Oppo and, by extension, OnePlus) and Xiaomi all featured within the top ten biggest spenders.

Xiaomi, which jumped from 18th in 2017 to tenth in 2018, spent $7.1-billion on semiconductors in 2018, which marked a growth rate of 62.8% — the highest of its peers.

In total, more than $470-billion changed hands in 2018, an increase of $56-billion in 2017 or 13.4%.

Feature image: Samsung