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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