Seoul, Sep 18 (IANS): US semiconductor manufacturer Intel may lose its third spot in terms of sales for the first time in the third quarter (Q3) to SK hynix, a major South Korean chipmaker, a report showed on Wednesday.

SK hynix is expected to post a fresh high of $12.8 billion in revenue in the July-September period to outstrip Intel to become the third-largest chipmaker in the world, according to market analyst Omdia.

It will mark the first time SK hynix delivers stronger performance than Intel since Omdia began tracking the global semiconductor industry's revenue in 2002, reports Yonhap news agency.

US artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant Nvidia Corp. is forecast to keep its top spot with quarterly sales of $28.1 billion, and Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. its No. 2 spot with record quarterly sales of $21.7 billion.

Nvidia, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are expected to take up 16 percent, 12.3 percent and 7.3 percent of global chip sales for the third quarter, respectively.

Market watchers said SK hynix's performance can be attributed to increasing demand for high-value products, like high-bandwidth memory chips, sparked by the AI boom.

Meanwhile, AI chip giant Nvidia reported $30 billion revenue for the second quarter ended July 28, up 15 per cent from the previous quarter and up 122 per cent from a year ago.

However, the firm's shares fell after the announcement as analysts said it was less about just beating estimates as markets expect the company to perform even better.