China’s SMIC Beats GlobalFoundries & Becomes World’s 3rd Biggest Contract Chipmaker

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China's largest chip manufacturer, the Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) surged to the third place in the global ranking of contract chip manufacturers according to data from research firm TrendForce. At the top of the list is TSMC, which commanded more than half of the market and accounted for 61.7% of the sector's revenue during this year's first quarter. SMIC has been under strict US sanctions to prevent the Chinese military from acquiring advanced chips, and according to TrendForce, growth in local orders enabled it to overtake GlobalFoundries and the Taiwanese chip maker United Microelectronics Corporation, or UMC.

China's SMIC Rakes In $1.7 Billion In Revenue In Q1 To Account For 5.7% Of Global Contract Chip Manufacturing Market

According to the data, SMIC earned $1.7 billion in revenue during the first quarter, which allowed it to rank third among the world's largest contract chip manufacturers. This marked a rare win for the Chinese firm which had to deal with the impact of US sanctions on its ability to manufacture and sell advanced chips. TrendForce's data shows that the $1.7 billion revenue enabled SMIC to capture 5.7% of the global market, which led to to beat UMC and GlobalFoundries.

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In the previous quarter, UMC and GlobalFoundries commanded 5.4% and 5.8% of the global market, respectively. GlobalFoundries' share marked a considerable drop, as it stood at 5.1% during the first quarter. This was unsurprising, given the firm's decision to stop development of process technologies smaller than 10-nanometer.

The firm took this decision in 2018 as it struggled with cost control, and in its earnings call for Q4 2023, management had shared that