 According to the latest figures from IC Insights, there has been a big shake-up in the Top 20 semiconductor supplier rankings in the 1H07 with continued movements up and down through the 2H07 also expected.
Not surprisingly, most of the movement occurred below the Top 3 placements (Intel, Samsung and TI). Fabless semiconductor giant Qualcomm gained four positions in 1H07, moving from 17th in 2006 to 13th in 1H07, now standing at only $17 million behind 12th-ranked Infineon. Qualcomm revenues climbed 9 percent q-on-q, while Infineon's grew 6 percent, setting up the fight for positions in the second-half of the year. AMD lost 2 positions compared to its 2006 standing of 13th position, highlighting the challenging position all too well chronicled in 2007. However, q-on-q shows a promising recovery could be taking place as revenues increased 12 percent - the second highest climb among the Top 20. The highest q-on-q increase came from TSMC - 17 percent for 1H07 - but did not prevent them from dropping one spot! IC Insights believes that improved fab utilization rates and forecasted revenue increases in 2H07 should see TSMC regain its higher ranking. The biggest fall came from Freescale, dropping from 9th largest semiconductor supplier in the world in 2006 to 16th in 1H07. The company showed a 1 percent q-on-q gain but is suffering due to its level of dependence on Motorola, which has suffered severe market share loss in the mobile handset market in 2007. Sony moved up one spot in the Top 10 ranking and currently resides in 9th place while NXP made a similar incremental climb going from 11 to 10. There were also few surprises as to which group of companies saw q-on-q revenue declines. As the chart below shows, those in decline were mainly memory manufacturers with Toshiba, Elpida, Toshiba and Hynix some of biggest losers in the period. However, IC Insights expects to see pricing stability return to the DRAM and flash memory markets in the second half of 2007 due the seasonality issues that have yet to play out. A very tight grouping of the six companies ranked from 12-16 (where there was only a $38 million difference in sales between all five in 1H07) are likely to cause significant changes in the Top 20 semiconductor ranking in the second half of 2007. 
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