The latest report from market research firm TrendForce reveals that fueled by surging AI demand, the world's top 10 IC design companies achieved a combined revenue of $249.8 billion in 2024, marking a 49% year-over-year growth. NVIDIA maintained its dominant lead, widening the gap with competitors as its revenue soared 125% to $124.3 billion, accounting for 50% of the total top 10 revenue — up 17 percentage points from the previous year.

Top 5 IC Design Companies Dominate the Market

TrendForce notes that high-end AI chips require massive capital and advanced technology, creating a high barrier to entry and reinforcing a "winner-takes-all" scenario. The top five IC design companies alone contributed over 90% of the total revenue among the top ten.

Here's a closer look at the top five IC design companies of 2024:

1. NVIDIA — $124.3 billion (+125% YoY)

Driven by booming demand for H100/H200 AI GPUs from major cloud service providers (CSPs) expanding AI data centers, NVIDIA firmly held its leadership position. With upcoming GB200/GB300 chips on the horizon, the company is expected to further expand its AI revenue in 2025.

2. Qualcomm — $34.86 billion (+13% YoY)

Qualcomm's revenue, excluding QCT business, grew steadily. After settling its patent dispute with Arm, Qualcomm is set to focus on AI PCs and edge computing, despite potential headwinds from Apple's in-house 5G modem development.

3. Broadcom — $30.64 billion (+8% YoY)

Broadcom's semiconductor business thrived, with AI chip revenue contributing 30% of total semiconductor solutions. The company's AI XPU and Ethernet networking portfolio led to 122% growth in AI revenue, reaching $12.2 billion — a record high. Broadcom anticipates stronger performance in 2025, supported by wireless, broadband, and server storage rebounds.

4. AMD — $25.79 billion (+14% YoY)

AMD's data center and client businesses flourished, with data center revenue surging 94%. The company aims to sustain momentum through AI PCs, HPC/AI accelerators, and strategic collaborations with Dell, Microsoft, and Google.

5. MediaTek — $16.52 billion (+19% YoY)

MediaTek benefited from growth in smartphones, power management ICs, and Smart Edge platforms. In 2025, the company targets a 65% 5G market penetration rate and higher share in the high-end smartphone chip market. Its Project DIGITS collaboration with NVIDIA is expected to fuel additional growth.

The Rest of the Top 10

6. Marvell — $5.64 billion (+2% YoY)

Growth was modest across core businesses.

7. Realtek — $3.53 billion (+16% YoY)

Realtek rebounded from 2023's inventory correction, with PC and automotive shipments performing as expected. Wi-Fi 7 adoption is projected to drive double-digit growth in 2025.

8. Novatek — $3.2 billion (-10% YoY)

Revenue dipped due to weak demand in the display panel market, impacting display driver IC sales.

9. Will Semiconductor — $3.05 billion (+21% YoY)

Growth was driven by rising shipments of OmniVision's CIS chips in high-end Android smartphones and autonomous driving applications, particularly in China's EV market.

10. MPS (Monolithic Power Systems) — $2.21 billion (+21% YoY)

MPS secured a foothold in AI server supply chains with its PMIC solutions, resulting in Enterprise Data revenue doubling year-over-year.

2025 Outlook: Edge AI Devices to Drive Next Wave of Growth

TrendForce predicts that advanced semiconductor processes will continue to boost AI chip performance, alongside the rise of large language models (LLMs) and emerging open-source models like DeepSeek, which lower the barriers to localized AI deployment. This trend is expected to push AI applications from servers into personal devices, positioning edge AI as the next major growth engine for the semiconductor industry.