TSMC Foundry Market Share Dips

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Whichever way you cut the market, TSMC remained the world's biggest chip foundry during the first half of the year, well ahead of its nearest rival, UMC.

Proof - if it were needed - comes from market watcher IC Insights, which this week published its league charts for pure-play foundries and for foundries that also do their own chip development work. Put the two together and you have a picture of the overall foundry business.

TSMC and UMC dominate the pure-play market and the industry as a whole. TSMC notched up sales in excess of $2.5 billion - more than double UMC's sales of $1.27 billion - giving it 51 per cent of the pure-play market, down a just three percentage points from its 2002 market share, 54 per cent.

Fellow Taiwanese player UMC took the next 25 per cent of the business. Number three in the chart, Singapore's Chartered, recorded sales of $305 million, enough for a six per cent share of the market.

Source : The Register