Intel Corp.’s more than two-decade streak as the largest semiconductor maker in the world has ended, according to a preliminary market estimate by Gartner Inc. released today.

The research firm reports that Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. secured the top spot in 2017 by taking 14.6 percent of the market. That amounted to over $61 billion in sales, which Gartner said represents a hefty 52.6 percent increase over the previous year. Most of the growth can be credited to strong demand for memory chips.

Despite only accounting for 31 percent of the overall semiconductor market, memory chips drove about two-thirds of the revenue gains in 2017. Total industry sales came out 22 percent higher than last year, at $419.7 billion.

As the world’s leading memory chip supplier, it stands to reason that Samsung was among those that benefited the most from the increase. Smaller rivals SK Hynix Inc. and Micron Technology Inc. gained as well, both seeing their market share jump by nearly 80 percent in 2017.

The past year saw Samsung take several steps to cement its position. Most notably, the technology giant announced plans to invest a $18.6 billion to expand memory production. The lion’s share of the capital has been earmarked for upgrading a NAND flash memory plant in its native South Korean that online only last June.

Although the amount of memory produced by Samsung is set to rise, Gartner expects its revenue growth to start slowing down. The research firm projects that the new chip plants being constructed by the company and rivals such as China’s Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd. will increase supply to the point where prices should start dropping considerably.

As a result, Gartner warned that Samsung’s current lead in the semiconductor industry “may not last long.” The report shows that Intel came in a close second in 2017 with a 13.8 percent share of the total market, or less than a percentage point behind its South Korean rival. That translated into revenues of just over $57 billion.

Image: Samsung