Top 4 Chip Distributors See Revenue Surge, but the Gap Widens Further

01 WT Microelectronics and WPG Holdings Lead, Clearly Widening the Gap with Arrow and Avnet

In the third quarter of this year, all of the TOP4 companies achieved relatively substantial revenue growth.

In terms of year-on-year growth, WPG Holdings ranked first at 107.8%; both WT Microelectronics and Avnet exceeded 80%; Arrow grew 39%. In terms of revenue scale, WT Microelectronics and WPG Holdings continued to maintain their lead, while Arrow and Avnet both broke through the US$10 billion mark.

First is WT Microelectronics, which ranked first, with third-quarter revenue already approaching NT$600 billion.

WT Microelectronics' third-quarter revenue was approximately NT$597.3 billion (about US$18.226 billion), up 82% year on year and about 1% quarter on quarter, setting a new quarterly revenue high.

Profit growth was even more pronounced. In the third quarter, consolidated operating profit was approximately NT$14.2 billion, up 151% year on year; net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company after tax was approximately NT$10.3 billion, up 170% year on year, setting consecutive new quarterly profit highs.

In the first three quarters of this year, WT Microelectronics' cumulative consolidated revenue was approximately NT$1.68 trillion (about US$51.265 billion), up about 101% year on year; net profit attributable to the parent company was approximately NT$27 billion, up 189% year on year.

WPG Holdings' performance this year has also been equally outstanding.

In the third quarter, WPG Holdings' revenue was NT$507.93 billion (approximately US$15.501 billion), up 107.8% year on year and 10.8% quarter on quarter. It exceeded NT$500 billion for the first time, setting a new quarterly revenue high, and also surpassed the upper end of the company's previous revenue guidance of NT$460 billion to NT$500 billion.

It is worth noting that in the third quarter of last year, WPG Holdings' revenue declined both year on year and quarter on quarter; by the third quarter of this year, the growth momentum had clearly reversed.

In the first three quarters of this year, WPG Holdings' cumulative revenue reached NT$1.28 trillion (approximately US$39.059 billion), up 72.5% year on year, already about 1.28 times its full-year 2025 revenue of NT$999.1 billion.

Now let us look at Arrow and Avnet. In 2025, the performance of Arrow and Avnet began to recover, and entering 2026, the growth momentum of both companies further strengthened.

Arrow's third-quarter revenue was US$10.718 billion, up 39% year on year, setting a quarterly revenue record and exceeding the upper end of its previous guidance.

Both of its major businesses grew simultaneously: Global Components revenue was US$7.943 billion, up 43% year on year; Global Enterprise Computing Solutions (ECS) revenue was US$2.775 billion, up 29% year on year. By region, all three regions of the Global Components business achieved relatively rapid growth. Among them, the Americas grew 58% year on year, EMEA grew 41%, and Asia Pacific grew 33%.

In the first three quarters of this year, Arrow's cumulative revenue was US$30.184 billion, up 36.5% year on year.

Finally, Avnet.

Avnet's first quarter of fiscal year 2027 (FY2027 Q1, June 28 to October 3, 2026) revenue was US$10.718 billion, up 81.7% year on year and 29.2% quarter on quarter, also setting a new quarterly revenue record.

In terms of business, Electronic Components (EC) revenue was US$10.135 billion, up 84.3% year on year; Farnell revenue was US$583 million, up 46.2% year on year. By region, the Americas grew fastest, up 108.9% year on year; Asia grew 78.8% year on year; EMEA grew 64.3% year on year. All three major regions achieved significant growth.

In the first three quarters, Avnet's cumulative revenue, calculated on a calendar-year basis using the corresponding quarters, was approximately US$26.133 billion, up 55.3% year on year.

In the first three quarters of last year, the cumulative revenues of WT Microelectronics, WPG Holdings, Arrow, and Avnet were approximately US$27.0 billion, US$24.1 billion, US$22.1 billion, and US$16.8 billion, respectively. In the same period this year, the four companies' revenues increased to approximately US$51.3 billion, US$39.1 billion, US$30.2 billion, and US$26.1 billion, respectively, growing about 101%, 72.5%, 36.5%, and 55.3% year on year.

Judging from the performance in the first three quarters of this year, the revenue ranking of the TOP4 has not changed, but WT Microelectronics and WPG Holdings have grown their revenue scale faster, and the gap between them and Arrow and Avnet has clearly widened.

02 Stronger Growth Momentum: What Is Driving This Round of Growth?

Compared with last year, there is a clear change in the performance of the global TOP4 chip distributors this year:

It is no longer just certain regions and certain businesses taking the lead in recovery; instead, more end markets and product categories are beginning to jointly drive growth.

For WT Microelectronics, AI-related demand remains the main driver of growth.

In the third quarter, data center and server business revenue grew 114% year on year, accounting for 55.5% of total revenue; communications business grew 113% year on year, among which demand for AI optical communications grew rapidly.

Although third-quarter data center and server business revenue declined about 5% quarter on quarter due to shipment timing adjustments, the company expects the business to resume high double-digit growth in the fourth quarter; full-year 2026 revenue for this business is expected to grow about twofold year on year, and it is expected to maintain rapid growth in 2027. WT Microelectronics said that major global cloud service providers (CSPs) and leading AI-related companies are expected to continue expanding capital expenditure in 2027, and AI-related demand is expected to remain strong and gradually spread to more application areas.

Non-AI businesses are also continuing to recover. Its subsidiary Future Electronics saw third-quarter revenue grow more than 40% year on year; automotive electronics and industrial and instrumentation businesses grew 72% and 64% year on year, respectively. As inventory adjustments in the European and American markets gradually come to an end, related businesses continue their recovery momentum.

On the supply side, WT Microelectronics noted that rapid growth in data center demand over the past year or more has tightened overall electronic component supply, with shortages of some products, but the situation remains under control for now.

For WPG Holdings, the share of memory products has risen significantly, with AI server demand and product price increases jointly driving growth.

From the perspective of business structure, by product category, memory component revenue in the second quarter rose sharply from 26% of total revenue in the same period last year to 54%, already accounting for more than half of total revenue. By end application, computing (including servers) accounted for 45%, remaining the largest application market.

In addition, demand for power management, network communications, energy storage systems, and high-density connectors continued to grow, while demand for automotive electronics and industrial control also recovered steadily.

WPG Holdings previously noted that revenue growth was driven not only by warming market demand but also by price adjustments for some products and customers pulling in orders ahead of schedule.

Arrow's Global Components business grew 43% year on year in the third quarter, with rapid growth across the Americas, EMEA, and Asia Pacific markets. On its third-quarter earnings call, Arrow said memory prices had risen notably, and the revenue growth of its components business was driven by price increases. In the third quarter, the book-to-bill ratio for the Global Components business remained clearly above 1, and the backlog increased further, extending into mid-2027.

In addition, the ECS enterprise computing business grew 29% year on year, with continued demand growth in AI, cloud computing, cybersecurity, and hybrid cloud infrastructure, helping the enterprise computing business maintain strong momentum.

Avnet said its core markets—including industrial, aerospace and defense, transportation, and AI and data centers—continued to grow.

In the third quarter, Americas revenue grew 108.9% year on year, making it the fastest-growing market among the three regions; Asia remained its largest source of revenue, accounting for about 47.8% of total revenue. The book-to-bill ratio in all regions was above 1, and backlog continued to grow.

On pricing, Avnet said that about one-third of both the year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter revenue growth in the quarter came from rising memory product prices. For other electronic component categories besides memory, price changes have not yet had a significant impact on revenue. However, management observed that price increases have begun to spread to more categories and expects more product price increases in 2027.

03 Conclusion

Overall, unlike last year, when discussions focused on the end of inventory adjustments and the gradual recovery of end demand, this year the performance of the TOP4 chip distributors has already begun to reflect the combined impact of AI infrastructure investment, memory price increases, and recovering demand across more end markets.

Looking ahead to the next quarter, WT Microelectronics expects fourth-quarter revenue with a midpoint of approximately NT$750 billion (about US$22.886 billion), up 26% quarter on quarter and 119% year on year; Arrow expects fourth-quarter revenue of US$11.55 billion to US$12.15 billion; Avnet expects revenue of US$11.1 billion to US$11.4 billion; and WPG Holdings plans to further elaborate on its fourth-quarter operational outlook at its investor conference on November 17.