Is the Chip Boom Just NVIDIA? What 15 Income Statements Say
We rebuilt the quarterly income statements of the 15 largest US-listed chipmakers from their SEC filings. The answer: in 2023 the boom really was one company. It has since broadened — but the industry that emerged is split into two economies that share little beyond the word “semiconductor”.
WorldPulse Research·
41.6%
NVIDIA share of top-15 revenue (Q1 2026)
+83.6%
AI five revenue growth YoY (Q1 2026)
+10.5%
Other ten growth YoY (Q1 2026)
14 of 15
Companies growing YoY (Q1 2026)
50.9%
AI five net margin (TTM)
$196B
Top-15 combined revenue (Q1 2026)
Computed live from SEC 10-Q/10-K filings for the latest quarter in which all 15 companies have reported. Fiscal quarters are mapped to the nearest calendar quarter.
Start with the number that answers the question. In the quarter ending around March 2026, NVIDIA booked $81.6B of revenue — 41.6% of everything earned by the 15 largest US-listed chipmakers combined. Three years earlier, before ChatGPT, its share was 7.6%. Add the rest of the AI complex — Broadcom, AMD, Marvell and Micron — and five companies now take 71.6 cents of every top-15 revenue dollar, up from 32.6 cents in late 2022.
So: yes, the boom is extraordinarily concentrated. Of the $116B in additional quarterly revenue the group generated between Q4 2022 and Q1 2026, SEC filings show 98% came from those five companies, and 65% from NVIDIA alone. But concentration is only half the story — and the half most commentary stops at. The more interesting question is what happened to the other ten companies, because that is where “the chip boom” stops being one thing and becomes two.
1. The market is booming — by the most it ever has
The industry-level numbers from World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) are historic on their own: worldwide chip sales reached $76.3B per month in November 2025 (latest available), up 29.5% year-over-year, with trailing-12-month sales of $763B against $574B in calendar 2022. Regional billing splits point the same way as the company data — Asia Pacific, where AI accelerators are fabbed and assembled, grew 48.5% year-over-year while Japan shrank 5.6%.
The chart below is the article's thesis in one picture: NVIDIA's share of top-15 revenue rose from 5.3% in early 2020 to 41.6% in Q1 2026, and the AI five's from under 30% to 71.6%. Note the kink in early 2023 — the inflection is visible within two quarters of ChatGPT's launch. Micron's memory supercycle (+196% year-over-year in Q1 2026, with DRAM repriced by AI demand) is the newest contributor.
Share of combined top-15 chipmaker revenue (%)
3. In 2023, “the boom” was literally one company
Rewind to mid-2023, when the AI narrative took over. NVIDIA's revenue was doubling and then tripling — +101% year-over-year in the quarter ending July 2023, +206% in October 2023, +265% in January 2024. Meanwhile only 4 of the 15 companies were growing at all: the other ten's combined revenue fell 12.1% year-over-year in late 2023 as the post-COVID electronics glut worked through PCs, phones, cars and factories. Anyone who said “the chip boom is just NVIDIA” in 2023 was almost exactly right.
That is no longer true. By Q1 2026, 14 of 15 companies were growing year-over-year (median +23.8%), with Qualcomm the only decliner at −3.5%. The breadth chart below tracks the count through the whole cycle.
Breadth: how many of the 15 chipmakers grew revenue year-over-year
4. Growth returned; scale never did
Here is the two-speed structure that survived the recovery. Indexed to Q4 2022 = 100, the AI five stood at 538 in Q1 2026. Equipment makers (Applied Materials, Lam Research, KLA — who sell tools into the AI fab build-out) reached 114. Legacy compute (Intel + Qualcomm) reached 103 — three years of nothing. And the five analog/auto chipmakers sat at 93 — still below where they were when ChatGPT launched, despite growing 20.8% year-over-year: their combined $14.5B quarter remains under the $16.2B peak of Q3 2022.
Profitability tells the same story more brutally. Trailing-12-month net margins: AI five 50.9% (from 29.2% two years earlier), equipment 31.2%, analog 22.2% — and legacy compute 6.9%, with Intel losing $3.2B over the trailing year on revenue a third below its 2021 peak ($13.6B vs $20.5B per quarter).
Quarterly revenue by group, indexed to Q4 2022 = 100
The verdict: no longer just NVIDIA — but never again the same industry
The claim “the chip boom is just NVIDIA” was true in 2023 and is false in 2026: 14 of 15 major US chipmakers are growing again, analog is up 20.8% year-over-year, and even the memory cycle has turned violently positive. On breadth, the boom is real.
But the industry that came out the other side is structurally different from the one that entered. Five AI-exposed companies now capture 72% of top-15 revenue at 51% net margins; the analog economy that powers cars and factories has merely regained its 2022 scale; and legacy compute is flat, with Intel loss-making. The two speeds are no longer growth rates — they are altitudes. Whether that separation is permanent is the defining question of the next semiconductor cycle.
Frequently Asked Questions
What share of chip industry revenue does NVIDIA have?
Among the 15 largest US-listed semiconductor companies, NVIDIA alone booked 41.6% of combined revenue in the quarter ending around March 2026 ($81.6B of $196.1B), up from 7.6% in late 2022 and 5.3% in early 2020, based on SEC 10-Q filings. Including the wider AI complex — Broadcom, AMD, Marvell and Micron — the share reaches 71.6%.
Is the semiconductor boom only about AI?
Mostly, at the margin: of the $116B per quarter of revenue the top-15 group added between Q4 2022 and Q1 2026, 98% came from the five AI-exposed companies and 65% from NVIDIA alone. But growth has broadened — by Q1 2026, 14 of the 15 companies were growing year-over-year, compared with only 4 of 15 in mid-2023.
Are analog and automotive chipmakers recovering?
Yes, from a deep downturn. The five analog/auto-focused companies (Texas Instruments, Analog Devices, NXP, Microchip, onsemi) grew a combined 20.8% year-over-year in Q1 2026 — but their combined quarterly revenue of $14.5B is still below the $16.2B peak they reached in Q3 2022. Their recovery is real; their cycle simply never left the pre-AI scale.
How profitable are AI chipmakers compared to the rest?
The gap is unprecedented. On a trailing-12-month basis to Q1 2026, the AI five earned a combined 50.9% net margin (up from 29.2% two years earlier). The analog group earned 22.2%, equipment makers 31.2%, and legacy compute (Intel plus Qualcomm) just 6.9% — with Intel losing $3.2B over the trailing twelve months.
Where does this data come from?
Company figures are extracted from 10-Q and 10-K XBRL filings on SEC EDGAR — quarterly revenue and net income as reported, with fiscal quarters mapped to the nearest calendar quarter. Market-level sales come from World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS). All series are queryable through the WorldPulse API and the charts on this page update as new filings arrive.
Data & methodology. Company revenue and net income are extracted from 10-Q and 10-K XBRL filings on SEC EDGAR, as reported in USD; fourth fiscal quarters are derived as full year minus the three reported quarters where companies file no separate Q4 statement. Fiscal quarters are bucketed to the nearest calendar quarter end, and group statistics use only quarters in which all 15 companies have reported (Q1 2026 at publication). Market sales are from World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS), monthly billings as 3-month moving averages, latest November 2025. The 15-company universe excludes foreign filers such as TSMC, Samsung and SK Hynix; Broadcom revenue includes its infrastructure-software segment. All series are served live from the WorldPulse knowledge graph and the charts update as new filings arrive. See the Semiconductor Market Monitor for the evergreen dashboard. This article is analysis, not investment advice.