The world's top-15 semiconductor companies' sales surged by 26% in the first quarter of 2018 compared to a year ago, six points higher than the total worldwide semiconductor industry increase of 20%, according to IC Insights. Of the top-15 semiconductor companies, 13 enjoyed double-digit sales growth in the first quarter.

IC Insights' top-15 ranking includes one pure-play foundry (TSMC) and four fabless companies. If TSMC were excluded from the top-15 ranking, MediaTek would have been ranked in the 15th position, said the research firm.

Intel was the number one ranked semiconductor supplier in the first quarter of 2017, but lost its lead spot to Samsung Electronics in the second quarter of 2017 as well as in the full-year 2017 ranking, a position it had held since 1993, IC Insights indicated. With the continuation of the strong surge in the DRAM and NAND flash markets over the past year, Samsung went from having 5% less total semiconductor sales than Intel in the first quarter of 2017 to having 23% more semiconductor sales than Intel in the first quarter of 2018.

Samsung, along with other memory chipmakers SK Hynix and Micron Technology, each registered greater than 40% year-over-year growth in the first quarter of 2018, IC Insights noted. It is interesting to note that memory devices represented 83% of Samsung's semiconductor sales in the first quarter, up 6pp from 77% in the first quarter of 2017 and up 12pp from 71% just two years earlier in first-quarter 2016, IC Insights said.

Samsung's non-memory sales came to US$3.3 billion in the first quarter of 2018, up 6% from US$3.125 billion a year earlier, IC Insights indicated.