How Nvidia dominated the 2024 fabless chip market

Market news | March 17, 2025

By Peter Clarke

In 2024 market leader Nvidia was as big as the other nine top-ten fabless chip companies in aggregate, according to market analyst TrendForce.

While the other companies saw annual rises of around 10 to 20 percent AI processor vendor Nvidia’s semiconductor revenue increased by 125 percent to US$124.4 billion. This gave it a 50 percent share of the top ten’s aggregate revenue of US$249.8 billion.

The adoption of efficient open-source models, such as DeepSeek, could lower AI adoption costs and accelerate AI penetration from servers down to personal devices. Edge AI is set to be the next major growth driver for the semiconductor industry, TrendForce said.

Demand for Nvidia’s H100/H200 GPUs surged in 2024 and the launch of GB200 and GB300 in 2025 is expected to boost Nvidia’s revenue in 2025.

Top ten fabless chip companies ranked by 2024 revenue (US$ millions). Source: TrendForce.

Broadcom also benefited from AI-driven demand, with its semiconductor division generating US$30.64 billion in revenue, an 8 percent year-on-year increase, ranking third. AI chip revenue now accounts for over 30 percent of Broadcom’s semiconductor solutions. After facing a mid-year downturn in 2024, the company is expected to see strong rebounds in wireless communications, broadband, and server storage in 2025.

TrendForce predicts that AMD will continue to focus on AI PCs and HPC/AI accelerators in 2025 leveraging collaborations with Dell, Microsoft and Google to sustain growth.

In 2024 Qualcomm and MediaTek rebounded from previous slowdowns in the smartphone market. Qualcomm’s QCT division achieved sales of US$34.86 billion in 2024, a 13 percent year-on-year increase, securing second place. Qualcomm is expected to shift its focus toward AI PCs and edge computing as legal disputes over ARM licensing are now temporarily concluded.

MediaTek’s 5G smartphone penetration is projected to exceed 65 percent in 2025, with an increasing share in the high-end market bolstering revenue. Additionally, its partnership with NVIDIA on Project DIGITS is expected to sustain growth momentum.

Nvidia launches desktop AI computer

Will Semiconductor is projected to have achieved revenue of US$3.0 billion in 2024, representing a 21 percent year-over-year increase. Over the recent years, the company has continued to expand its market share in CMOS image sensors. This growth is particularly driven by the increasing proportion of high-end CIS shipments in Android phones and the ongoing penetration of electric vehicles globally, especially in the Chinese region, into autonomous driving applications.

Monolithic Power Solutions (MPS) rounded out the top ten with US$2.2 billion in revenue, up 21 percent YoY. The company’s PMICs have successfully entered the AI server supply chain, driving exponential growth in its enterprise data division.