San Jose, California–The worldwide semiconductor market reached $222.1 billion in 2000, up 31% from 1999, according to San Jose, California-based market research firm Dataquest Inc., a unit of Gartner Group, Inc. The Americas lead the world with semiconductor revenue of $71.7 billion in 2000, Dataquest reports, up 29% from 1999. Asia/Pacific followed with revenue totaling $56.9 billion. Japan’s revenue reached $50.4 billion, up 33% from 1999. The European market topped $43.1 billion, up 29% from 1999.

“We are now at the end of the second year of an up cycle, and there is despondency regarding the future, as the fourth quarter of 2000 was weak relative to the preceding quarter,” says Joe D’Elia, vice president and director of Gartner Dataquest’s European semiconductor research. “Historically, the industry has gone through inventory corrections during the positive portion of the industry cycle, and we have no reason to believe that this current weakening is anything other than an inventory correction.”

The semiconductor industry’s top 10 companies saw some movement in 2000. Intel held onto its No. 1 slot, while NEC fell from its No. 2 position in semiconductor revenue to the No. 3 slot–replaced by Toshiba (No.2), which had an outstanding year, according to Dataquest. Samsung remains No. 4, followed by Texas Instruments (No. 5), and Motorola (No. 6). STMicroelectronics moved into the No. 7 slot, bumping Hitachi back to No. 8. Hyundai made it into the top 10 at No. 9, and Infineon Technologies AG was pushed from the No. 8 slot in 1999 to No. 10 in 2000.