Huawei Was No. 3 Chip Buyer in 2018

Find the Latest SoC Solutions
for... Automotive... IoT... Security... Audio... Video

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 06, 2019 – 

Huawei, the controversial Chinese vendor of networking gear and smartphones, increased its semiconductor spending by 45% last year to move into the third position among global chip buyers, according to market research firm Gartner Inc.

Huawei spent more than $21 billion on semiconductors in 2018, moving it ahead of Dell on the chip buyer list, despite the U.S. PC vendors own 27% surge in chip spending, Gartner said.

Huawei's move up the chip buyer list underscores one of the dilemmas facing Western chip makers. As governments in the U.S. and Europe ramp up their rhetoric and against Huawei's perceived threats to security and intellectual property, the firm is at the same time becoming a more important customer.

Other Chinese OEMs joined Huawei among the top buyers of semiconductors last year. In all, Gartner said four Chinese firms were among the world's top 10 buyers of chips last year – Huawei, Lenovo, Xiaomi and BBK Electronics, which includes both Vivo and OPPO.

Samsung and Apple remained the top two chip buyers last year, accounting for 17.9% of the overall market, according to Gartner. The two smartphone powerhouses – which have been the top two buyers of semiconductors since 2012 – accounted for 19.5% of the market's total in 2017.

 Back