LONDON — The Fabless Semiconductor Association said that in the first half of 2006, fabless semiconductor companies revenue totaled $23.7 billion, equating to 20 percent of total semiconductor sales, and up 32 percent year-on-year.

North American fabless companies represented 75 percent of revenue, followed by Asia with 21 percent, Europe with 3 percent and India with less than 1 percent.

The association also listed the top ten fabless companies and ranked them by 1H 2006 revenue. The ten companies had total revenue of $12.4 billion, or 52 percent of the total fabless industry revenue. At the same time fabless chip companies successfully raised more revenue than before. Some 85 companies raised $1.1 billion, a 22 percent year-over-year dollar amount increase and a 9 percent year-over-year increase in the number of deals closed, the FSA said.

Top ten fabless chip companies ranked by first half 2006 revenue

1. Qualcomm, $2.2 billion
2. Broadcom, $1.8 billion
3. Nvidia, $1.4 billion
4. SanDisk, $1.3 billion
5. ATI Technologies, $1.3 billion
6. Marvell Technology, $1.1 billion
7. LSI Logic, $966 million
8. Xilinx, $954 million
9. MediaTek, $701 million
10. Altera, $627 million

Source: Fabless Semiconductor Association