June 26, 2007 – Fabless industry revenue mirrored the fate of overall chip sales in 1Q07, dipping about 8% to $11.7 billion and flat with a year ago, according to data from the Fabless Semiconductor Association (FSA).

Fabless sales made up 19% of the semiconductor sales total of $61.0 billion in 1Q. By company, Qualcomm still holds the spot for top fabless sales with $1.3 billion, followed by the shuffled trio of Broadcom ($901M), NVidia ($844M), and SanDisk ($786M). Just over half (56%) of all 161 fabless companies reporting net income in 1Q were in the black, and the majority of those profits came from Taiwan.

Thirty-nine fabless companies raised $500.8 million, a 32% jump in dollars, and an 18% increase in the number of deals closed, notes the FSA. An interesting trend convergence appears in the US, where rising fabless investments ($384 million in 1Q07) actually exceeded overall semiconductor investments in 1Q07 ($358 million), which have fallen for four consecutive quarters now (-36% since 2Q06).