Semiconductor Suppliers, then and now

The other day I ran across an article on EETimes.com titled Which chip makers will rule in 2018? While the focus of the article is on the future, probably the most interesting piece of data that it contained was actually a table, depicted below, which showed the top 10 semiconductor supplier from 1978 to 2008 in ten year increments. It is surprising how much information can be gleamed from a simple table such as this one: rise and fall of companies, countries, results of mergers and acquisitions and so on.

Here are a few observations: For those like myself, that cannot call themselves industry veterans quite yet, it might comes as a surprise that in 1978 TI and Motorola where the two dominant companies. Noticeable as well is Intel’s 9th position in the ranking below National and Fairchild. As we all know, over the next few decades Intel would go on and climb the ranking to eventually claim the number one spot. National and Fairchild did not fare nearly as well. By the late 1970s Fairchild was very much past its glory days, and in 1979 it was acquired by Schlumberger Limited – an oil field services company. Not surprisingly, in 1987 Schlumberger sold Fairchild to National, however as can be seen from the table, by the time 1988 rolled around, the combined entity no longer made the top 10 list. The 1988 rankings show the ascend of Japanese suppliers: NEC, Toshiba, and Hitachi claimed the top three spots, respectively, and overall, Japanese companies claimed six of the top 10 spots. In 1998, the picture changed again, with Intel taking the number one spot and with Samsung’s ascend signaling the emergence of South Korea as a major player in the semiconductor field. Interestingly the table also places Infineon in the tenth spot. In actuality, the company still ought to be have been called Siemens at that point since Infineon did not spin out from Siemens until 1999.

The 2008 rankings also showed some major changes in part due to mergers and acquisitions: Renesas, a joint venture between Mitsubishi and Hitachi, joined the list. NEC, which spun out NEC Electronics in 2003, dropped off the list completely. Earlier this year though, Renesas and NEC Electronics announced plans to merge by 2010 and thus create the world’s third largest semiconductor supplier, at least on paper. Motorola and Philips, both of whom spun out their semiconductor divisions as Freescale Semiconductor and NXP Semiconductors, respectively, have failed to translate the spin-outs into sales, and as such both have dropped off the list. Hynix Semiconductor, a spin-out from Hyundai Electronic, joined Samsung as the second South Korean company on the top 10 list, continuing the ascend of Korean companies. The 2008 list also showed the emergence of fabless semiconductor companies, with Qualcomm joining the list in the 8th spot. Strictly going by name recognition and ignoring all the new ventures created through mergers and acquisitions only Intel and Toshiba have remained in the top 10 list over the last three decades. What will the next decade bring is an interesting question indeed, but we’ll have to wait till 2018 to find out.