Global top ten IC design companies see significant revenue growth; NVIDIA remains far ahead, while OmniVision rises to eighth place

For stock trading, just look at the research reports from the Golden Qilin analyst team—authoritative, professional, timely, comprehensive—helping you uncover high-potential themes and opportunities!

（Source: Securities Times）

Securities Times reporter Ruan Ruan Sheng

Driven by the AI (artificial intelligence) wave, the top ten global chip design companies have seen their revenue rise significantly. According to statistics, in 2025, the combined revenue of the world’s top ten IC design companies exceeded $359.4 billion, up 44% year over year. NVIDIA retained the revenue crown, while Broadcom overtook Qualcomm to become second. In addition, in A-shares, the IC design leader OmniVision Group moved up to eighth place globally.

NVIDIA widens the gap again

The latest survey by TrendForce (Witdata/TrendForce) shows that in 2025, major cloud service providers continued to purchase GPUs and acquire self-developed ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits) to meet growing compute demand, boosting revenue growth for AI-related chip design vendors.

As a leader in compute, NVIDIA, backed by its powerful AI chips and compute ecosystem, has continued to set new revenue highs. According to TrendForce statistics, NVIDIA’s revenue grew 65% year over year in 2025, reaching $205.7 billion, with the growth rate firmly ranked first; it is also expected that subsequent products such as GB200/GB300 will further drive NVIDIA’s AI-related revenue.

The reporter noted that the TrendForce statistics differ from the financial report disclosure data of listed companies. NVIDIA’s disclosed 2026 fiscal year report, covering the period ended January 25, 2026, shows the company achieved full-year revenue of $215.9 billion, up 65% year over year. The data center business delivered strong growth, with full-year revenue of $193.7 billion.

As one of NVIDIA’s competitors, AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) saw its data center revenue grow more than 30% in 2025, driving total revenue up 34% year over year to $34.6 billion, which is broadly consistent with the financial report data disclosed by listed companies; it ranked fourth. Analysts say AMD’s performance growth reflects that AI server industry customers are seeking a second source beyond NVIDIA, as well as demand for open ecosystem solutions.

However, when looking at the revenue share of the top ten chip design companies, AMD’s gap in catching up to NVIDIA has not narrowed significantly. According to TrendForce statistics, AMD’s revenue share remained at 10% in 2025, while NVIDIA’s revenue share increased from 50% in the prior year to 57%.

Demand for customized chips accelerates

Although NVIDIA’s “one-company-dominates” situation in AI chips has not changed, NVIDIA’s customers have already started to pursue customized chip roadmaps to diversify and reduce supply risk. In addition, the AI network communications industry has entered a phase of rapid development. Last year, Broadcom—a leader in sub-industries—overtook Qualcomm in revenue scale to become the world’s runner-up among chip design companies. Its revenue rose to $39.7 billion, up 30% year over year.

Analysts say the value focus of AI semiconductors has shifted from GPUs to the broader network architecture, including customized AI chips, Ethernet equipment, and NICs (network interface controllers). Against this backdrop, AI network communications has evolved from a mere “supporting role” that simply supports server cabling into core infrastructure that determines the efficiency of AI clusters and enables scaling.

MeiMan (MeiMan Electronics) has also benefited from the rapid adoption of AI-related data center connectivity, customized chips, and interconnect technologies. In 2025, its revenue exceeded $8.0 billion, ranking sixth, with a growth rate of 43%, only behind NVIDIA.

NVIDIA is also closely expanding customized chips and AI communication networks to strengthen core competitiveness in AI infrastructure. Recently, NVIDIA announced a $2.0 billion investment in Meiman Electronics. At the same time, NVIDIA’s own networking business saw an unprecedented surge: in fiscal 2026, revenue from this segment is expected to exceed $31.0 billion. Compared with fiscal 2021, when NVIDIA acquired Marvell to strengthen networking, this business has grown more than 10 times.

TrendForce analyst noted that NVIDIA’s investment in Meiman Electronics will, in the future, provide platform solutions for joint customers that are compatible with NVLinkFusion, as well as the opportunity to integrate customized ASICs into NVIDIA’s interconnect ecosystem. This indicates that competition for AI infrastructure has extended from “GPU compute capability” further into a comprehensive competition encompassing “interconnect standards” and “platform integration capability.”

Revenue for power management solution vendors supporting AI and servers has also been boosted significantly. According to statistics, last year, Singularity Systems’ (Sichuan? actually “芯源系统”) revenue in the US stock market grew 26% year over year to $2.79 billion, marking the first time it entered the global top ten.

Smartphone manufacturers push into premiumization

Compared with data centers, the consumer electronics industry represented by smartphones has seen a downturn in overall conditions. As a result, leading chip design companies, affected by the trend, have all turned to premiumization strategies.

According to statistics, Qualcomm’s 2025 fourth-quarter flagship phone SoC shipments helped the company reach a historical revenue high; however, the growth momentum of its smartphone-focused business structure is weaker than AI. For the full year, revenue was nearly $38.9 billion (up 12%), and the company fell to third place.

MediaTek last year shipped large volumes of its smartphone flagship chip Dimensity 9500, driving 2025 full-year revenue growth to $19.1 billion, also a historical high, ranking fifth. In addition, Realtek, a network and audio chip vendor, and RG (display driver chip vendor Unisuper?) ranked seventh and ninth, respectively.

A-share chip design leader OmniVision Group’s ranking has improved again. Benefiting from the number of lenses mounted driven by China’s domestic automotive intelligent assisted driving systems, the company’s automotive CIS business grew accordingly. Combined with strong demand for sports and panoramic cameras, the company’s full-year revenue last year reached $3.31 billion, moving up from ninth place in the previous year to eighth. Its share of revenue among the top ten IC companies is about 1%.

According to OmniVision Group’s latest financial report disclosures, last year the company achieved operating revenue of RMB 28.86B, up 12.14%. As a company mainly engaged in image sensor business, sales revenue aimed at the market for automotive intelligent driving and emerging applications grew 26.52% and 211.85% year over year, respectively; while revenue from the smartphone market was RMB 8.27B, down 15.61% year over year.

Last year, the smartphone industry market declined, and smartphone manufacturers’ cost pressures intensified. IDC predicted that cost pressure will push prices of Android flagship phone models even higher. Products with substantial innovation and differentiated competitive strengths are more likely to be recognized by consumers. The smartphone market is showing a pattern of continued expansion at the high end under ongoing pressure at the low end.

To respond to industry changes, OmniVision Group said it has continued to strengthen its competitive advantages in the high-end CIS field for intelligent smartphones. Last year, it launched the 50-megapixel, 1-inch high dynamic range image sensor OV50X, which can support flagship smartphones with movie-level video capture capabilities; mass production and deliveries have already been achieved.

Consumption-end markets may continue to face pressure

TrendForce noted that the smartphone industry has entered a new stage characterized by “higher-tiering supporting growth, while cost pressure suppresses total volume.” According to earlier forecasts, in 2026, due to the surge in memory prices globally, the number of shipments may decrease by 10% year over year, bringing total volume down to about 50M units.

Taking mainstream memory capacity of 8GB+256GB as an example, the estimated contract price for the first quarter of 2026 is nearly double compared with the same period in 2025. In the past, memory accounted for roughly 10%—15% of materials and parts costs in smartphones; now it has rapidly risen to 30%—40%. TrendForce said that raising terminal prices seems to have become an inevitable choice for maintaining operations. Brands also need to readjust their product mix or configurations to cope with the current sustained surge in memory prices.

Overall, the logic-chip and memory-chip dual-engine driven by AI-related demand and compute infrastructure are driving growth in the global semiconductor market.

Earlier, the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics Organization (WSTS) forecast that the global semiconductor market size in 2025 would grow 22% to $772 billion, with logic chips and memory chips becoming the main drivers of growth. Meanwhile, other semiconductor categories showed a mild recovery. Discrete devices saw a slight decline due to weak demand from automotive applications. By region, growth led in the Americas and Asia-Pacific, while Europe achieved steady growth and Japan saw a modest decline.

Looking ahead to 2026, the global semiconductor market is expected to maintain a strong growth momentum, reaching $975 billion. Growth is expected across all regions and product categories, with both memory chips and logic chips exceeding 30% in year-over-year growth rates, leading industry growth. Influenced by AI infrastructure construction, supply-demand relationships in sub-sectors have shown disruptions, but the pressure in consumer-end markets is clearly evident.

A massive amount of information and precise analysis—right here in the Sina Finance app