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JULY 23, 2002 RELEASE

Release

Major Shakeup in 1H02 Top 10 Semiconductor Company Ranking
Samsung jumps to second place; TSMC joins the ranking for the first time

Scottsdale, Arizona --- July 23, 2002 --- IC Insights today released its ranking of worldwide top 10 semiconductor suppliers for the first half of 2002 (Figure 1). With three suppliers from the U.S., three from Europe, two from Japan, one from Korea, and one from Taiwan, the list is a balanced representation of geographic regions.

Intel maintained its number one position among the worldwide top 10 semiconductor suppliers, according to IC Insights. However, significant movement took place in the remainder of the ranking. According to statistics recently generated by IC Insights for its new Mid-Year Report, first half 2002 changes in top 10 positions include:

--TSMC jumped six spots from 15th to 9th to enter the top ten ranking for the first time;
--Samsung secured 2nd place by jumping three positions;
--Infineon moved ahead three places into 6th place; and,
--Hitachi dropped out of the top 10 ranking.

Figure 1

Providing evidence of the growing trend toward using silicon foundries, TSMC leaped into the top 10 ranking, jumping six spots in the first half of 2002 as compared to its 2001 position. As shown, TSMC displayed the highest year-over-year first half 2002 growth rate (15 percent) among the top 10 producers. IC Insights believes that TSMC has an excellent chance of securing the #7 spot when full-year 2002 results are registered.

Samsung and Infineon rode the coattails of the DRAM market increase in the first half of the year, especially in 1Q02. As a result, each jumped three places in the top 10 ranking. Besides strong DRAM sales, it should also be noted that Samsung’s system-level IC products sold very well in 2Q02 as did Infineon’s telecom, automotive, and smartcard IC devices.

As a final note, non-U.S. top 10 companies will likely receive an extra "boost" in 2H02 sales when expressed in U.S. dollars. This boost will come from the plunging value of the U.S. dollar versus the yen, euro, won, and Taiwan dollar, which could inflate semiconductor sales, when converted to U.S. dollars, by 10 percent or more over 1H02.

About IC Insights

IC Insights, Inc., based in Scottsdale, Arizona, is dedicated to providing high-quality, cost-effective market research for the integrated circuit industry. Founded in 1997, IC Insights offers coverage of global economic trends, IC market forecasts, capital spending and fab capacity trends, product market details, and technology trends, as well as complete IC company profiles and evaluations of emerging markets for ICs.