This article presents the Worldwide TOP 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders over the years.

We distinguish 3 types of companies :

• The chip makers who design and manufacture their chips (like Intel).
• The fabless companies who design and sell their chips but outsource the manufacturing to foundry companies (like ATI Technologies or Xilinx)
• The foundry companies who manufacture the chips designed and sold by their customers.

For companies which also deal with other activities than semiconductors, only the revenue of their semiconductor activities is taken into account (for instance IBM also deals with many other activities)

Gartner Dataquest Corp. has the longest history as the reference publisher of this ranking and offers independent syndicated research. Alternative souces of semiconductor sales market share have also become available (for example the one given by iSuppli. 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 next 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.

Ranking for year 2005

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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 :

Notes :

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

Ranking for year 2003

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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 :

Notes :

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

Ranking for year 2001

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Source Gartner Dataquest Corp.

Ranking for year 1996

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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

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Source Gartner Dataquest Corp.

Ranking for year 1994

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Source Gartner Dataquest Corp.

Ranking for year 1993

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Source Gartner Dataquest Corp.

Ranking for year 1992

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Source Gartner Dataquest Corp.

Ranking for year 1991

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Source Gartner Dataquest Corp.

Ranking for year 1990

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Source Gartner Dataquest Corp.

Ranking for year 1989

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Source Gartner Dataquest Corp.

Ranking for year 1988

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Source Gartner Dataquest Corp.

Ranking for year 1987

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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.

Semiconductors

Le classement des 20 premiers fabricants de semiconducteurs au fil des ans