TSMC market share rises to 67.6% in Q1: TrendForce

Taipei, June 14 (CNA) Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) saw its market share in the global pure play wafer foundry business rise to 67.6 percent in the first quarter of this year, further cementing the company's lead over its peers, according to Taipei-based market information advisory firm TrendForce Corp.

TrendForce said TSMC's first quarter market share rose from 67.1 percent in the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, although the chipmaker's sales fell 5.0 percent from a quarter earlier to US$25.52 billion in the January-March period on slow season effects.

TrendForce added that solid demand for artificial intelligence applications and high-performance computing devices as well as rush orders placed by clients to avoid the impact resulting from the Trump administration's tariff policies helped TSMC offset slow season effects in the smartphone market.

TSMC's growing market share left South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. further behind in the first quarter with the South Korean rival securing 7.7 percent in global market share, down from 8.1 percent in the fourth quarter after its pure play wafer foundry sales fell 11.3 percent to US$2.89 billion.

China's Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. came in third with a 6.0 percent share of the market in the first quarter, ahead of United Microelectronics Corp. of Taiwan with a 4.7 percent share, and U.S.-based GlobalFoundries Inc. with a 4.2 percent share.

Huahong Group from China took sixth place, with a 2.7 percent market share in the first quarter, followed by Taiwan's Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp. (1.0 percent), Israel's Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (0.9 percent or US$35.8 billion), China's NexChip Co. (0.9 percent, or US$35.3 billion) and Taiwan's Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (0.9 percent or US$32.7 billion).

TrendForce said the top 10 contract chipmakers posted US$36.40 billion in sales in the first quarter, down almost 5.4 percent from a quarter earlier, accounting for about 97 percent of the global total, up from 96 percent in the fourth quarter.