The silicon foundries gained ground, but most Japanese chip makers lost share in the second quarter, according to the new rankings from IC Insights.

There were no changes in the top four positions. Intel remained the largest chip maker in terms of sales in the second quarter, followed in order by Samsung, TSMC and TI, according to the firm.

But Qualcomm jumped from seventh to fifth place in the rankings. Toshiba fell from fifth to sixth and Renesas slipped from sixth to seventh, according to the rankings. SK Hynix, Micron and ST rounded out the top 10.

There are three pure-play foundries in the top 20 ranking. In total, these foundries logged a 20% increase in 2Q12/1Q12 sales. GlobalFoundries’ Q2 sales jumped by 18%, which helped move the company past UMC to become the second-largest foundry in the world.  Currently, GlobalFoundries is ranked as the 16th largest semiconductor supplier worldwide and IC Insights believes the company has a good chance of surpassing Fujitsu in full-year 2012 sales to move into 15th place. UMC remained in 20^th place.

Ninth-ranked Micron is now set to acquire bankrupt Elpida, which was ranked 24th in the world. Micron could move up one or two positions in the ranking. This acquisition would also end Japanese company involvement in the DRAM market, a market they once dominated in the 1980s and 1990s.

In contrast to the excellent performance of the foundries, the combined sales of the four Japanese companies in the top 20 ranking (Toshiba, Renesas, Sony, and Fujitsu) dropped 16% in 2Q12 as compared to 1Q12, with Sony being the only Japanese company to register quarterly growth.

Tags: GlobalFoundries, IC Insights, Intel, Micron, Samsung, SK Hynix, ST, Ti, Toshiba, UMC

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