Asian firms top fabless IC vendor ranking

The current state of play in the semiconductor industry shows several Asian vendors ranking among 25 of the world's top fabless IC companies—five in Taiwan, two in China, one each in Japan and Singapore—according to an IC Insights report.

In IC Insights' 2013 top 50 fabless IC suppliers ranking, 14 companies had sales of $1 billion or more, the same number as in 2012. These suppliers had a combined $55.5 billion in sales and represented about 71 per cent of the $77.9 billion worth of total fabless company IC sales last year.

In total, the top 25 fabless IC suppliers represented 81 per cent of total fabless IC company sales, including MediaTek, Avago, HiSilicon, MStar, Spreadtrum, Realtek, Himax, and MegaChips.

Figure 1: As illustrated, Asian-based suppliers captured two of the top 10 places, and nine of the top 25 spots in the fabless IC supplier ranking for 2013. Source: IC Insights

MegaChips was the only Japanese firm in the top 25 fabless supplier ranking. MegaChips received a boost in sales from its 3Q12 acquisition of Kawasaki's semiconductor business. The Taiwanese and Chinese companies represented 28 per cent of the companies in the ranking, which is seen as an improvement since in 2008, there were no Chinese companies listed.

IC Insights expects an increasing number of Taiwan- and China-headquartered companies to make their way up the top fabless supplier ranking as IC design houses located those two countries continue to advance.

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