News Article
Infineon is the big winner in 2004 chip rankings
Europe's Infineon is now officially the world's fourth largest chip maker, according to market analyst IC Insight's 2004 semiconductor company rankings. The German company's 29% growth in 2004 helped is jump up three places compared with 2003, leapfrogging Japan's Renesas (5th place) and Toshiba (7th) and rival European firm STMicroelectronics (6th).
Europe's Infineon is now officially the world's fourth largest chip maker, according to market analyst IC Insight's 2004 semiconductor company rankings. The German company's 29% growth in 2004 helped is jump up three places compared with 2003, leapfrogging Japan's Renesas (5th place) and Toshiba (7th) and rival European firm STMicroelectronics (6th).
Europe's third major chip maker Philips just squeezes into the top 10 having risen one place from 11th in 2003. Interestingly, although Europe has three companies in the top 10, it has no further representation among the largest 50 semiconductor companies in the world.
Whatever the reasons, Europe is failing to create an economic environment in which emergent chip makers can flourish. The situation is not actually as dire as it appears from IC Insight's rankings because many companies that are registered outside Europe actually undertake a lot of manufacturing within the continent.
US headquartered AMD (13th) carries out the majority of its chip production in Europe, especially Germany.
The world's largest chip maker remains Intel, which with US$30.9 billion of sales generated almost twice as much revenue as its nearest rival Samsung with US$15.8 billion of sales. US-based Texas Instruments lies in third place with 2004 revenues of US$10.7 billion.
Europe's third major chip maker Philips just squeezes into the top 10 having risen one place from 11th in 2003. Interestingly, although Europe has three companies in the top 10, it has no further representation among the largest 50 semiconductor companies in the world.
Whatever the reasons, Europe is failing to create an economic environment in which emergent chip makers can flourish. The situation is not actually as dire as it appears from IC Insight's rankings because many companies that are registered outside Europe actually undertake a lot of manufacturing within the continent.
US headquartered AMD (13th) carries out the majority of its chip production in Europe, especially Germany.
The world's largest chip maker remains Intel, which with US$30.9 billion of sales generated almost twice as much revenue as its nearest rival Samsung with US$15.8 billion of sales. US-based Texas Instruments lies in third place with 2004 revenues of US$10.7 billion.
