But that didn't stop Samsung from stealing the Santa Clara, California-based chipmaker's spot as the world's biggest chipmaker -- a position Intel has enjoyed for more than two decades. Intel's memory business is indeed growing fastest, but it's almost microscopic when compared to Samsung's: $874 million, up 58% year-over-year. But everybody is ramping at what might be the peak of the memory business cycle, Rasgon said. And because memory is such a big business for Samsung, any potential future downturn will hit Samsung hardest. Nevertheless, Intel's return to the memory business is an interesting turn of events considering that's where Intel first started in 1970.

Source: Forbes July 28, 2017 20:35 UTC