Intel, Qualcomm, ON Semi. Nichia are Biggest Chipmaking Winners of 2011

From DailyTech: For all its critics and cynics, Intel Corp. (INTC) was still on top of the chipmaking market in 2011, posting one of the largest year-to-year growth numbers, according to a new report by iSuppli.

Intel's whopping 20.6 percent gains came thanks to its purchase of Infineon’s wireless unit, an ARM Holdings plc (LON:ARM) licensee who makes mobile baseband processors using the lightweight architecture, helped Intel realize big mobile sales and embed itself in smartphones.

Another big winner was San Diego, Calif. based Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM). Buoyed by strong sales of Android handsets, Qualcomm posted explosive 41.6 percent growth, rising from 9th place in global chip sales to 6th place. Interestingly, Qualcomm is poised to wage war with Intel in the PC space in 2012, with the launch of the ARM-friendly Windows 8 and Snapdragon 4-powered laptops/tablets.

Qualcomm's chipmaking rivals NVIDIA Corp. (NVDA) and Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN) posted modest growth of 12.9 and 7.5 percent, respectively. While not exactly the sales juggernaut that Snapdragon has proved, NVIDIA's Tegra and Texas Instruments' OMAP chip families sold well in 2011, supplementing the companies' more traditional sales fodder.

Outside the ARM space, the biggest winner -- the biggest growth of anyone, for that matter -- was ON Semiconductor Corp. (ONNN). A maker of LCD lighting and various other automotive and consumer solutions, the company's scooped up smaller players on its way to a formidable year of sales. Nichia Corp. -- another LED maker -- bucked the trend of Japanese firms declining in 2011, positing an impressive 34.1 percent growth.

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