SK hynix Inc., a major South Korean chipmaker, will likely outperform U.S. semiconductor manufacturer Intel Corp. in terms of sales for the first time in the third quarter, a report showed Wednesday.SK hynix is expected to post a fresh high of US$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.U.S. 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 at tributed to increasing demand for high-value products, like high-bandwidth memory chips, sparked by the AI boom.Source: Yonhap News Agency