Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and MediaTek Inc., both headquartered in northern Taiwan’s Hsinchu City, are ranked sixth and seventh in the world, respectively, in semiconductor R&D spending for 2016 in the latest survey by U.S.-based market research firm IC Insights.
According to the report, TSMC, the world’s largest dedicated integrated circuit foundry, invested US$2.215 billion in R&D last year, an annual increase of 7 percent. MediaTek, Taiwan’s leading IC designer, moved up one place in the rankings from 2015 with research expenditures totaling US$1.73 billion, a rise of 13 percent year on year. The companies’ R&D budgets represented 7.5 percent and 20.2 percent, respectively, of their sales for the period.
IC Insights’ survey showed that U.S. tech giant Intel Corp. continued to top all other chipmakers last year. It was followed by U.S. firms Qualcomm Inc. and Broadcom Ltd., with South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co. in fourth and Japan’s Toshiba Corp. in fifth.
The report ranks semiconductor manufacturers and fabless suppliers that invested at least US$1 billion on R&D last year. Overall, industry research spending rose 1 percent annually to hit a record US$56.5 billion in 2016, IC Insights said.
According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, dedicated IC foundries are the key growth driver of Taiwan’s semiconductor sector, contributing more than 80 percent of its total output. In recent years, local firms have been strengthening R&D and investment in order to maintain their leading positions and enhance their competitive advantages, the ministry added.
MOEA projections indicate that the production value of the nation’s IC sector is likely to surpass NT$1.2 trillion (US$38.9 billion) in 2016 to set a new record for the fourth consecutive year. (KH-E)
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