MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the nation’s largest IC designer, became the world’s eighth-largest semiconductor supplier last year, a report from US-based market advisory firm IC Insights said.
MediaTek reported a more than 60 percent year-on-year increase in sales after posting US$17.7 billion in revenue last year, the report said.
IC Insights’ rankings excluded pure-play foundry operators such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電).
Photo: Pichi Chuang, Reuters
MediaTek and US-based Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), which generated US$16.4 billion in sales and took the 10th spot, replaced Apple Inc and Germany’s Infineon Technologies AG among the top 10 semiconductor suppliers worldwide.
MediaTek and AMD held 2.9 percent and 2.7 percent market share respectively in the global semiconductor market, the report said.
South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co held the top spot after generating US$82.0 billion of sales, ahead of US-based Intel Corp (US$76.7 billion), South Korea’s SK Hynix Inc (US$37.4 billion), Micron Technology Inc (US$30.0 billion), Qualcomm Inc (US$29.3 billion), Nvidia Corp (US$23.2 billion) and Broadcom Inc (US$21.0 billion).
Among the top 10 semiconductor suppliers, five were fabless IC companies — Qualcomm, Nvidia, Broadcom, MediaTek and AMD, the report said.
In MediaTek’s annual report, chairman Tsai Ming-kai (蔡明介) said that the company had worked with its pure wafer foundry partner to develop advanced processes, including 3D chipsets to support high-performance computing devices.
While Tsai did not name its partner, it is widely thought to be TSMC, as MediaTek is one of TSMC’s largest customers.
MediaTek last year posted revenue of NT$493.4 billion (US$16.74 billion) and earnings per share of NT$70.56.
Company data showed that MediaTek was the largest smartphone IC supplier in the world last year.
Tsai said he had faith that the firm’s strong cash flow and improving profitability would allow its shareholders to continue sharing the earnings of MediaTek.
MediaTek has proposed issuing a NT$73 cash dividend — NT$57 per share from its earnings and NT$16 per share from its surplus capital.
The NT$57 from its earnings represents about an 81 percent payout ratio and Tsai said that the company would continue to pay generous dividends to its shareholders.
Shareholders are to vote on the dividend proposal at MediaTek’s annual general meeting on May 31.
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