Global Chip Market Growth Back to Double Digits

The worldwide chip market experienced double-digit growth in 1999, for the first time in four years, according to a report from research company Dataquest Inc. released today.

Global semiconductor revenue reached US$160 billion last year, a 17.6 percent increase over figures for 1998, according to the Dataquest report.

Intel Corp. clearly dominated the worldwide chips market in 1999, with $25.8 billion in revenue, up 13.3 percent from the previous year. With 16.1 percent market share, Intel was also the only chip company to experience double-digit market share, more than the next three companies combined, Dataquest said in a statement issued today.

NEC Corp. followed Intel both in revenue and market share terms, the same position the Japanese company held in 1998. The vendor reported $9.2 billion in revenue in 1999, up 12 percent from the previous year's figures.

In third position, up from a fourth place ranking in 1998, Toshiba Corp.'s revenue rose 28.4 percent year on year to $7.6 billion in 1999. South Korean company Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. had the strongest growth of the top ten global chip vendors, with revenue up 49.5 percent in 1999 to reach $7.1 billion.

Texas Instruments Inc. tied with Samsung for fourth position in 1999, with the U.S. vendor also posting revenue of $7.1 billion, showing an increase of 22 percent over the previous year. Motorola Inc. was the only company in the top ten to report a decrease in growth with a fall in revenue of 9.4 percent in 1999 to $6.4 billion.

Hitachi Ltd.'s revenue grew 18.3 percent to $5.5 billion, STMicroelectronics NV grew 21 percent to $5.1 billion, Philips Electronics NV grew 13.9 percent to $5.1 billion, and Infineon Technologies (formerly known as Siemens Semiconductors) grew 28.2 percent to $5 billion in 1999.

The remaining chip manufacturers had combined revenue of $76.2 billion last year, up 18.4 percent from 1998 figures, for a total market share of 47.6 percent.

Dataquest, owned by Gartner Group Inc. and located in Stamford, Connecticut, can be contacted at +1 203-964-0096, or at http://www.dataquest.com/.