October 26, 2004 – Once again Hewlett-Packard Co. reigns as the world’s largest semiconductor purchaser, and will hold onto its crown in 2005 despite a growing challenge by No. 2 Dell, according to data from iSuppli Corp.

HP, which also held the top spot in 2002 and 2003, will spend $14.5 billion on semiconductors in 2004, up 31.4% from 2003, accounting for 8.7% of all semiconductors purchased worldwide. HP’s procurement will rise another 11% in 2005 to $16.1 billion, keeping it at 8.7% market share.

In second place is computer OEM Dell, which will buy $13.4 billion worth of semiconductors in 2004 (a 33.4% increase from last year), increasing its market share from 7.4% to 8.0%. In 2005 iSuppli predicts Dell chip purchases will rise 16.1% to $15.6 billion for an 8.5% share of all semiconductor buys, and closing the gap with HP to just two percentage points.

Motorola and Samsung showed the highest year-on-year growth in 2004 among the top 10 spenders, with semiconductor purchases increasing by 44.7% and 36.1%, respectively.

Overall, the top 10 chip buyers will spend more than $76.1 billion in 2004, about 45% of the top 160 purchasers ($167.16 billion). In 2005 their purchases will grow 11% to $84.5 billion, slightly ahead of the pace of the rest of chip buyers ($184.06 billion).