Semiconductor sales leaders by year

This article lists the top 20 largest semiconductor companies by sales leaders over the past 20 years.

The article distinguishes between three types of semiconductor companies:

• Chip makers such as Intel and AMD that design, manufacture and sell their chips, which are designated as Integrated Device Manufacturers (IDM)
• Fabless manufacturers such as nVidia and Xilinx that design and sell chips but outsource manufacturing to foundry companies.
• Foundry companies (such as TSMC and UMC) that manufacture chips designed and sold by their customers.

Only corporate semiconductor revenues are taken into account and businesses activities outside this sphere are excluded, for example IBM non-semiconductor business lines are excluded.

Gartner Dataquest Corp. has the longest history as the reference publisher of this ranking and offers independent syndicated research. Alternative sources of semiconductor sales market share have also become available. In the majority of cases, rankings are based on the analysis of the financial reports of the chip makers, although definitional issues regarding chip types, multichip modules, foundry manufacturing and chip license revenues create differences in reported numbers. The ranking for a given year is published in March of the following year when all the financial reports of the companies are closed. Many electronics press magazines report the information (like eetimes). This article has been written with the help of these publications.

Additional recommended knowledge

How to ensure accurate weighing results every day?

Essential Laboratory Skills Guide

Don't let static charges disrupt your weighing accuracy

Forecast Ranking for year 2007

iSuppli Corporation supplied forecast rankings for 2007

(foundries excluded)

Ranking for year 2006

iSuppli Corporation supplied rankings for 2006

(foundries excluded)

Including foundry companies, we should add (source IC Insights):

Notes :

• (1) : In December 2005, AMD divested itself of its Flash Memory business, choosing solely to focus on its microprocessor and logic businesses. This change led to predictions that AMD's market share and spot in these rankings would drop precipitously. However, in June of 2006 AMD announced its intent to purchase ATI Technologies. The buyout of ATI Technologies closed in October 2006, and the additional revenues from the purchase of ATI make up the majority of AMD's revenue and market share gains (in the terms of this list)
• (2) : In 2006, the semiconductor operations of the parent company, Philips were sold to a consortium of private equity firms through an LBO to form a new separate legal entity named NXP Semiconductors.
• (3) : In 2006, Freescale (formerly known as Motorola semiconductors) agreed to be acquired by a consortium of private equity firms through an LBO —said to be the largest leveraged buyout of a technology company in history—.
• (4) : In 2006, the memory activities (essentially DRAM) of the parent company, Infineon were spun off to form a new separate legal entity named Qimonda. The comparison between year 2006 and 2005 takes into account this split. Qimonda becomes the world's fourth largest DRAM manufacturer.

Ranking for year 2005

Source : iSuppli (foundries excluded)

Including foundry companies, we should add :

Notes :

• (1) : In 2005, the two companies AMD and Fujitsu sold their stake in their joint-venture company Spansion previously controlled by AMD. With combined revenues of $5.97 billion in 2005, AMD/Spansion would have jumped to number eight in the rankings if AMD had not spun off its Spansion flash-memory division. Following the split, AMD was ranked at 15th and Spansion at 24th in 2005. With a total revenue of 5.970 Md$ in 2005, AMD/Spansion would point at the 8th rank.
• (2) : The foundry activities of IBM are excluded from this revenue.
• (3) : The Top 5 of the largest fabless companies are :

Ranking for year 2004

Source iSuppli (foundries excluded)

Notes :

• (1) : The foundry activities of IBM are excluded from this revenue.

Ranking for year 2003

Source iSuppli (foundries excluded)

Notes :

• (1) : In 2002, the semiconductor operations of the two Japanese parent companies, Mitsubishi and Hitachi were spun off and merged to form a new separate legal entity named Renesas.
• (2) : In 2003, the semiconductor operations of the parent company, Motorola were spun off to form a new separate legal entity named Freescale.
• (3) : The foundry activities of IBM are excluded from this revenue.
• (4) : In 2003, AMD and Fujitsu created a joint-venture company named Spansion, which gathers their activities in flash memories. Because AMD owns 60% of the company, its revenue is assigned to AMD in the ranking.
• (5) : The Top 5 of the largest fabless companies are :

Ranking for year 2002

Source iSuppli (foundries excluded)

Notes :

• (1) : The foundry activities of IBM are excluded from this revenue.

Ranking for year 2001

Source iSuppli (foundries excluded)

Notes :

• (1) : The foundry activities of IBM are excluded from this revenue.
• (2) : In 2000, the semiconductor operations of parent company, Lucent Technologies were spun off to form a new separate legal entity named Agere.

Ranking for year 2000

Source iSuppli (foundries excluded)

Notes :

• (1) : The foundry activities of IBM are excluded from this revenue.
• (2) : In 2000, the semiconductor operations of parent company, Lucent Technologies were spun off to form a new separate legal entity named Agere.

Ranking for year 1999

Source Gartner Dataquest Corp.

Notes :

• (1) : In April 1999, the semiconductor operations of parent company, Siemens AG. were spun off to form a new separate legal entity named Infineon.

Ranking for year 1998

Source Gartner Dataquest Corp.

Notes :

• (1) : In 1998, following the withdrawal of Thomson SA., the company SGS-Thomson has been renamed into STMicroelectronics.

Ranking for year 1997

Source Gartner Dataquest Corp.

Ranking for year 1996

Source Gartner Dataquest Corp.

Notes :

• (1) : Lucent Technologies is composed of what was formerly AT&T Technologies, which included Western Electric and Bell Labs. It was spun-off from AT&T in 1996.

Ranking for year 1995

Source Gartner Dataquest Corp.

Ranking for year 1994

Source Gartner Dataquest Corp.

Ranking for year 1993

Source Gartner Dataquest Corp.

Ranking for year 1992

Source Gartner Dataquest Corp.

Ranking for year 1991

Source Gartner Dataquest Corp.

Ranking for year 1990

Source Gartner Dataquest Corp.

Ranking for year 1989

Source Gartner Dataquest Corp.

Ranking for year 1988

Source Gartner Dataquest Corp.

Ranking for year 1987

Source Gartner Dataquest Corp.

Notes :

• (1) : In June 1987, SGS-Thomson was formed from the merger of the Italian company SGS Microelettronica (Società Generale Semiconduttori) and the semiconductor arm of the French company, Thomson.