MediaTek 5th-largest IC designer worldwide in Q3: TrendForce

Taipei, Dec. 23 (CNA) Taiwan-based smartphone IC designer MediaTek Inc. was ranked as the world's fifth-largest fabless IC designer in the third quarter of this year, according to Taipei-based market information advisory firm TrendForce Corp.

In a research report released earlier this week, TrendForce said MediaTek posted US$3.47 billion in revenue during the July-September period, up 8.7 percent from a year earlier on the back of growing demand for chips for the production of smartphones, WiFi6 devices and power management solutions.

Despite the increase in sales in the third quarter, MediaTek's market share fell to 7.8 percent from 8.4 percent in the second quarter, while its ranking remained unchanged at No. 5, TrendForce's data showed.

Novatek Microelectronics Corp., another Taiwanese company specializing in display driver IC design, came in seventh after generating US$913 million in sales in the third quarter, down 7.5 percent from a year earlier as demand for consumer electronics products remained weak, TrendForce said.

Novatek took a 2.0 percent share in the global market in the third quarter, down from 2.6 percent in the second quarter, TrendForce added.

Also affected by weakening demand for consumer electronics chips, communications network IC designer Realtek Semiconductor Corp., another Taiwanese IC company, came right behind Novatek after posting US$842 million in sales in the third quarter, down 1.7 percent from a quarter earlier, TrendForce said.

Novatek saw its global market share fall to 1.9 percent in the third quarter from 2.3 percent in the second quarter, according to TrendForce.

In the third quarter, U.S.-based AI chip designer Nvidia Corp. grasped the top spot after generating US$16.51 billion in sales, up sharply by 45.7 percent from the second quarter at a time when the global market was full of frenzy about generative AI development and Large Language Model (LLM) applications, TrendForce said.

Nvidia took a 36.9 percent share in the global market in the third quarter, up from 29.8 percent in the second quarter, with data center applications accounted for almost 80 percent of the company's total revenue, TrendForce said.

Qualcomm Inc., a U.S. smartphone IC designer, came in second after posting US$7.37 billion in revenue in the third quarter, up 2.8 percent from a year earlier following the debut of its latest flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip and a rebuilding of inventories by clients rolling out new Android phones, TrendForce said.

Despite the increase in revenue, Qualcomm's third-quarter market share fell to 16.5 percent from 18.9 percent in the second quarter, TrendForce added.

Broadcom Corp, an American wireless and broadband communication IC designer, took the No. 3 spot as it posted about US$7.20 billion in sales, up 4.4 percent from a quarter earlier, benefiting from solid demand for AI-related applications such as application-specific integrated circuit and network interface cards, the advisory firm said.

However, Broadcom's share in the global market fell to 16.1 percent in the third quarter from 18.2 percent in the second quarter, according to TrendForce.

In fourth was U.S.-based IC designer AMD, which generated US$5.80 billion in sales, up 8.2 percent from a year earlier on the back of strong demand for cloud and data center applications, but its market share fell to 13.0 percent from 14.1 percent, TrendForce said.

Others in the top 10 were U.S. data processing IC designer Marvell Technology Inc. in sixth with a 3.1 percent share, Shanghai-based Will Semiconductor in ninth with a 1.7 percent share, and U.S.-based logic IC designer Cirrus Logic Inc., in 10th with a 1.1 percent share, according to TrendForce.

The combined revenue of the top 10 IC designers totaled US$44.74 billion in the third quarter, up 17.8 percent from a year earlier, TrendForce said.