Fabless IC leaders call US home

April 25, 2011 — US-based suppliers captured 9 of the top 10 places and 13 of the top 20 positions in the fabless IC supplier ranking for 2010, according to recent data from IC Insights. Combined, the top 20 fabless IC suppliers represented 77% of the $59.9 billion in fabless IC sales last year, down two points from 2009 but up two points from 2008.

2010 rank 2009 rank 2008 rank Company Headquarters 2008 ($M) 2009 ($M) % Change 2010 ($M) % Change
1 1 1 Qualcomm US 6477 6409  -1 7204  12
2 3 2 Broadcom US 4449 4271  -4 6589  54
3 2 AMD US 0 5403  NA 6494  20
4 6 4 Marvell US 3055 2690  -12 3592  34
5 4 5 MediaTek Taiwan 2864 3500  22 3590  3
6 5 3 Nvidia US 3660 3151  -14 3575  13
7 7 6 Xilinx US 1906 1699  -11 2311  36
8 10 8 Altera US 1367 1196  -13 1954  63
9 8 7 LSI Corp. US 1795 1422  -21 1616  14
10 11 9 Avago US 905 858  -5 1187  38
11 12 11 Novatek Taiwan 829 819  -1 1149  40
12 9 ST-Ericsson* Europe 0 1263  NA 1146  -9
13 15 18 MStar Taiwan 454 605  33 1067  76
14 17 17 Atheros** US 472 543  15 927  71
15 16 12 CSR Europe 695 601  -14 801  33
16 14 15 Realtek Taiwan 534 615  15 706  15
17 13 10 Himax Taiwan 833 693  -17 643  -7
18 18 16 PMC-Sierra US 525 496  -6 635  28
19 69 52 Trident US 149 85  -43 558  556
20 Lantiq Europe 0 0  NA 550  NA
Top 20     30969 36319  17 46294  27
Others     12861 10931  -15 13571  24
Total     43830 47250  8 59865  27
Table 1. 2010 top 20 fabless IC suppliers. SOURCE: IC Insights Strategic Reviews Database. *Represents the 50% share not accounted for by ST. **To be purchased by Qualcomm in 2011.

2010 was the first year on record that total fabless IC company sales did not outperform total IC market growth (a 27% increase for fabless IC companies versus a total IC industry growth rate of 31%). As shown in Table 1, relatively poor performances by Qualcomm, MediaTek, Nvidia, LSI Corp., ST-Ericsson, Realtek, and Himax were to blame. In total, these seven "poor performers" increased their 2010 IC sales by only 8%, dismal results compared to total IC market growth of 31%.

Overall, 13 fabless IC companies had over $1.0 billion in IC sales in 2010. In contrast to the seven "poor performing" fabless companies mentioned above, IC Insights lists its "Magnificent Seven" fabless IC suppliers in Table 2. "The Magnificent Seven" fabless companies’ sales surged 47% last year. This sales-growth ranking includes fabless IC suppliers that had over $1.0 billion in sales in 2010 and outgrew the total IC industry increase of 31%.

2010 rank Company Headquarters 2009 ($M) 2010 ($M) % Change
1  MStar  Taiwan 605   1067 76 
2  Altera  US  1196  1954  63
3  Broadcom  US  4271  6589  54
4  Novatek  Taiwan  819  1149  40
5  Avago  US  858  1187  38
6  Xilinx  US  1699  2311  36
7  Marvell US   2690 3592   34
Total  12138  17849  47
"The Magnificent Seven" 2010 fabless IC suppliers. SOURCE: IC Insights Strategic Reviews Database

These 7 top performers accounted for 45% of the total increase in fabless IC sales in 2010 ($5.7 billion out of $12.6 billion). With only seven fabless companies out of just over 100 major fabless IC suppliers (i.e., companies with greater than $10 million in sales) representing such a large share of last year’s fabless IC sales increase, these companies are the prime targets for the IC foundries (e.g., TSMC, GlobalFoundries, UMC, Samsung, etc.).

IC Insights’ April Update to The McClean Report is dedicated to IC company rankings and includes the top 50 semiconductor, IC, and fabless IC suppliers. Moreover, the top company rankings of MPU, MCU, foundry, flash memory, DRAM, analog, etc., suppliers are also provided in the April Update.

Report Source: April Update to The McClean Report 2011 and Strategic Reviews Online, www.icinsights.com

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