July 23, 2003 – There is less food on the fabless funding plate than a year ago, but more companies are bellying up to the table.
Twenty-seven companies raised a total of $335.4 million for fabless semiconductor operations in 2Q03, a 21% decline from 1Q03, according to the Fabless Semiconductor Association (FSA). However, the FSA points out that spending also dipped quarter-on-quarter by 16% from 1Q02 to 2Q02, and 51% from 1Q01 to 2Q01, so the current decline is not unusual.
For the first half of 2003, 62 companies closed $758.8 million in fabless funding deals, a 19.4% drop from 1H02, and a 45.8% drop from 1H01; however, the total number of deals closed by fabless companies actually increased by 7%.
The FSA’s recent “2003 Q2 Fabless Fundings Report” also notes that fabless sector funding is actually outpacing the semiconductor industry as a whole, and contributed 85% of all semiconductor-related funding in 2H03.