News from June 14th reports that according to the latest survey by global market research firm TrendForce, the global wafer foundry industry experienced a low season in the first quarter of 2024, with total revenue declining by 4.3% quarter-on-quarter to $29.2 billion. Consumer electronics entered their traditional slow season, and urgent orders within the supply chain were mostly for individual customers' inventory replenishments, leading to overall weak momentum. However, strong demand for AI servers became the only bright spot supporting the supply chain.

In terms of rankings, SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation) benefited from inventory replenishment orders for consumer products and the trend of localization, jumping to third place. Meanwhile, GlobalFoundries fell to fifth place due to adjustments in automotive, industrial control, and data center business. Despite facing a slow season for consumer products like smartphones, TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) maintained its market share at 61.7% thanks to strong demand for HPC chips related to AI servers.

Samsung's semiconductor factory saw a revenue decline of 7.2% due to the smartphone off-season and the trend of domestic substitution. On the other hand, SMIC's revenue increased by 4.3% quarter-on-quarter due to the localization trend and new demand for Chinese smartphones, raising its market share to 5.7%. Revenue and market share for UMC (United Microelectronics Corporation) and GlobalFoundries experienced slight fluctuations due to changes in market demand.

Top 10 global wafer foundry ranking 2024 as follow:

1. TSMC

2. Sasung

3. SMIC

4. UMC

5. Global Foundries

6. HuaHong Group

7. Tower

8. PSMC

9. Nexchip

10. VIS

Looking ahead to the second quarter, as the mid-year consumer season approaches, along with the stocking of new smartphones and increasing demand for AI-related HPC and peripheral ICs, the supply chain is beginning to receive urgent orders for these applications. However, the mature process market remains sluggish, and intense price competition is slowing down the recovery. TrendForce forecasts that the total production value of the top ten global wafer foundries will only achieve low single-digit growth in the second quarter.