While prospects for the global semiconductor market look bright for this year and next, it isn’t great news for the European semiconductor companies says Future Horizons CEO Malcolm Penn.
"For the first time in the history of the semiconductor industry there is not one European semiconductor manufacturer in the global top 10,” he revealed at the IFS Semiconductor Market Update Seminar.
Philips Semiconductor was the European standard bearer for decades before being joined by STMicroelectronics and Infineon in 2005.
They have now been relegated and the top 10 line up consists of five from a resurgent US semiconductor industry – Intel (still the world number one semiconductor supplier), Qualcomm, Micron, Texas Instruments and Broadcom. Three hail from Japan – SK/Hynix, Toshiba and Renesas. Samsung (number two in the market) represents South Korea and TSMC (at three) flies the flag for Taiwan.
